Gaza ceasefire talks stall as sides unable to agree on second phase

Israel had wanted to extend first stage by six weeks as terms of moving on could be politically disastrous

- Julian Borger

Talks aimed at maintaining the ceasefire in Gaza hit an impasse in Cairo yesterday, over whether the truce should advance to a second phase.

A Hamas official said the multilateral negotiations in the Egyptian capital had made no progress on Friday, and there was no evidence the talks had resumed yesterday, the last day of the ceasefire's first six-week phase.

Hamas has not been directly participating in the talks, but it has been coordinating with Qatari and Egyptian officials who are at the negotiating table with US and Israeli delegations. The negotiators left Cairo on Friday night, and there was no sign of them reconvening late yesterday.

Israeli negotiators came to Cairo with a proposal to extend the first phase by another six weeks, but Hamas said it rejected that "formulation".