There will be no break in fighting this week.
The Hamas delegation present in Egypt since Sunday for discussions with a view to a truce in the Gaza Strip - where Israel is fighting the Palestinian terrorist movement - "left Cairo" this Thursday, Hamas confirmed.
Negotiations between their representatives, those of Egypt, those of Qatar and those of the United States "will resume next week", during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims, according to a senior Hamas official quoted by the Egyptian pro-government media outlet Al-Qahera News.
Faced with the humanitarian disaster and the heavy toll among the civilian population, the United States, Qatar and Egypt hope to reach an agreement on a pause in the fighting before Ramadan, which begins at the beginning of next week.
Since this Sunday, a Hamas delegation has been discussing a possible six-week truce in Cairo with American, Egyptian and Qatari representatives, but without an Israeli presence.
This would be associated with a release of hostages kidnapped on October 7 in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, as well as the entry of increased aid into the Palestinian territory.
A definitive ceasefire demanded by Hamas
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still in Gaza, 31 of whom are believed to have died, out of around 250 people kidnapped on October 7.
But the Islamist movement is demanding, before any agreement on the release of the hostages, a definitive ceasefire, a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the reconstruction of the territory and the return to their homes of hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by the war.
Israel rejects these conditions and assures that its offensive will continue until the elimination of Hamas.
Also read: Israel-Hamas war: what is still blocking negotiations on a truce in Gaza?
The war was sparked on October 7 by an attack of unprecedented scale carried out by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, which cost the lives of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas.
Its army launched a bombing campaign coupled with a ground offensive which has so far left - according to the Hamas Ministry of Health - 30,800 dead in Gaza, mostly civilians.