Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages, complicating a final deal to halt its bombing campaign that has devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources.

Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu told US lawmakers “our enemies are your enemies” in a landmark speech to Congress intended to rally support for the war against Hamas in Gaza, but marked by pro-Palestinian protests inside and outside the Capitol.

The U.S., Israel and the United Arab Emirates held a meeting in Abu Dhabi last Thursday to discuss plans for Gaza after the war ends, two Israeli officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told families of hostages held in Gaza that a deal that would secure their release could be near, his office said on Tuesday, as fighting raged in the battered Palestinian enclave.

Palestinian factions have signed a “national unity” agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over Gaza once Israel’s war on the enclave concludes.

The UN’s top court has said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law, in a landmark opinion.

The UAE has backed deploying an international force to provide “law and order” in the besieged Gaza Strip under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, the clearest sign yet that Gulf powers are inching closer to an agreement for a post-war force in Gaza that the US has been lobbying for.

Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE assistant minister for political affairs and special envoy of the UAE minister of foreign affairs, calls for a temporary international mission in Gaza.

Hamas said Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks were ongoing and the group’s military commander was in good health, a day after the Israeli military targeted Mohammed Deif with a massive airstrike that local health officials said killed at least 90 people, including children.

Washington Post, citing American officials, says sides have agreed that a 2,500-strong force trained by US will govern territory with help of moderate Arab states

Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of attempting to sabotage ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks by issuing a new set of “non-negotiable” demands.

Senior U.S. officials are in Cairo for talks to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but gaps still remain between the two sides, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday.

Hamas has tentatively accepted a US-backed proposal for a phased ceasefire, abandoning demands for an upfront commitment by Israel to end the war entirely. This could initiate a six-week ceasefire for hostage and prisoner exchanges and pave the way for broader talks to conclude the nine-month conflict.

The head of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, David Barnea, is reported to have travelled alone to Doha to meet Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani as momentum is again building over a possible ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to send a team of negotiators to discuss a hostage release deal with Hamas.

Israel and Hamas appear to be on the brink of a framework agreement for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, an Israeli source familiar with the negotiations said.

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, said on Saturday the Palestinian group is still ready to discuss any truce proposal that ends the nearly nine-month conflict.

The European Union is working with Arab states to push forward a peace plan between Israel and Palestine once the Gaza war is over, and perhaps even sooner, a senior EU diplomat has told The National.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is open to a “partial deal” with Hamas that allows him to continue the war on Gaza after some of the captives are released. A deal that permanently ends the war was not an option until Hamas is “eliminated,” he told Channel 14 on Sunday.

The US has indicated it is open to backing an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, amid mounting frustration that the group continues to link a truce with Israel to an elusive broader ceasefire in Gaza.

US special envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Tuesday after visiting Israel a day earlier, as part of US efforts to de-escalate the situation along the Lebanon-Israel border where intense fire exchanges between Hezbollah and the Israeli army are threatening to spill into a wider war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Hamas that it is “time for the haggling to stop”, after its leaders proposed “numerous changes” to a plan for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Interview of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken by Jalal Chahda of Al Jazeera.

Hamas says it has submitted its response to a US-backed plan for a ceasefire in Gaza, with a senior group official telling the BBC that it still requires an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire.

The United Nations Security Council has voted to support a US resolution backing a ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza.

In Middle East capitals, at the UN, from the White House and beyond, the Biden administration is making its most concentrated diplomatic push of the war in Gaza to persuade Israeli and Hamas leaders to take a proposed deal that would bring a cease-fire and release of more hostages.

Talks involving Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediators aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war were still underway on Thursday but had shown no sign of a breakthrough, two Egyptian security sources said.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar stressed the importance of dealing seriously and positively with US President Joe Biden’s proposal, to agree on a deal that guarantees a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and the adequate delivery of aid to all parts of the Strip.

The US government has “every expectation” that Israel will accept a ceasefire proposal that would begin with a six-week cessation of hostilities in Gaza if Hamas takes the deal, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted there will be no permanent ceasefire in Gaza until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed and all hostages are released.

Israel has agreed to a proposal that would lead to a “lasting” ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, US President Joe Biden has announced, as he faces mounting pressure and criticism over his support for the Israeli war effort.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a peace conference aimed at resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict and ending “tremendous suffering” in Gaza.

A senior Israeli official has said he expects the war against Hamas in Gaza to continue for at least the rest of this year.

The establishment of a Palestinian state is “the only route to peace” in the Middle East, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said as his country announced formal recognition, alongside Norway and Ireland.

The Day After might sound like the title of a film or a novel. But for diplomats and policymakers, the phrase has only one meaning and that is what happens ‘the day after’ the fighting stops in Gaza.

Sunday’s handover of papers came only two days after the UN’s top court ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in southern Gaza.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have been pursuing a way out. Can they get Israel on board?

The UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has issued a dramatic ruling, ordering Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah”.

Norway, Ireland and Spain said Wednesday they are recognizing a Palestinian state in a historic move that drew condemnation from Israel and jubilation from the Palestinians. Israel immediately ordered back its ambassadors from Norway and Ireland.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for war crimes.

As Israel bombs and re-bombs the tiny enclave, questions abound about when it will stop and what it will do next.

South Africa has urged the International Court of Justice to order Israel to halt its assault on Rafah as part of its case accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians.

The Arab League on Thursday called for a UN peacekeeping force in the occupied Palestinian territories, marking the first time Arab states have officially endorsed an internationalisation of the Israel-Palestine conflict since Israel’s war on Gaza erupted.

Israel’s military operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah has set ceasefire negotiations with Hamas “backward”, mediator Qatar has said, adding that the talks have lost steam.

The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted to support a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognising it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council “reconsider the matter favourably”.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognising it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council “reconsider the matter favourably”.

After months of stalemate, the search for peace in Gaza has reached a critical stage. UN chief Antonio Guterres says it is a “decisive moment for the Palestinian and Israeli people and for the fate of the entire region”.

Hamas says it has approved a proposal for a ceasefire in the seven-month Gaza war put forward by mediators Qatar and Egypt although Israel says the proposal falls short of its demands.

Western leaders expressed dismay that Israel might press ahead with an invasion of the tiny area despite a last-ditch bid by Hamas to secure a temporary ceasefire.

Al Jazeera obtained a copy of the Gaza ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted on Monday. The deal, which was put forward by Egypt and Qatar, would come in three stages that would see an initial halt in the fighting, leading to lasting calm and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territory.

In their second day of talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, Hamas negotiators maintained their stance that any truce agreement must end the war, Palestinian officials said.

The Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on the Gaza Strip issued the Riyadh Statement, expressing efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire, release of prisoners/hostages, and an end to war on Gaza and all unlawful and unilateral measures in Palestinian Territories.

The US secretary of state hopes Hamas will accept what he has called Israel’s “extraordinarily generous” offer for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal.

Qatar is reassessing its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, the country’s prime minister has said.

The United States has vetoed a widely supported resolution at the UN Security Council that would have paved the way for the state of Palestine to gain full membership at the United Nations.

After more than six weeks of fighting that has destroyed extensive areas of Gaza and killed thousands, Israel and Palestinian armed group Hamas have agreed to a four-day truce.