Ceasefire Indirect talks continue for second day

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza continued for a second day yesterday, hours before a planned meeting in Washington between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump late last night.

- Jason Burke

Avi Dichter, an Israeli minister and member of Netanyahu's security cabinet, said he expected the meeting would go beyond Gaza to include the possibility of normalising ties with Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia - a project that is central to the US president's policy in the Middle East.

"I think it will first of all be focused on a term we have often used but now has real meaning: a new Middle East," Dichter told Israel's public broadcaster, Kan, yesterday.

Trump has increased pressure for a deal in Gaza in recent weeks and raised the possibility that a ceasefire could be declared in a matter of days.