Middle East conflict live updates: Cease-fire talks stall; Netanyahu says Israel can fight solo

Hamas said it was sending its delegation back to the Qatari capital, Doha, and remained committed to the cease-fire proposal it received last week, The Washington Post reported. Israel has said the proposal Hamas agreed to differed from the version it reviewed. An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the Israeli team left Cairo on Thursday evening.

In a later interview on U.S. television, Netanyahu said he hoped that he and Biden could overcome their disagreements. The Israeli prime minister also said that in his vision of a post-Hamas Gaza there would need to be “continuous demilitarization” in the Strip, with a civilian government that is not committed to Israel’s destruction.

If Israel opts to “smash” into Rafah, Biden would have to make decisions about withholding additional weapons shipments, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “Again, we hope it doesn’t come to that,” he added.

UNRWA shut down its East Jerusalem headquarters after Israeli residents twice set fire to its perimeter. There were no casualties, but Philip Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinians, said “the lives of U.N. staff were at a serious risk.”

A ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza set sail Thursday from Cyprus, according to Cyprus’s foreign minister and marine tracking websites. The cargo vessel MV Sagamore is expected to make the first aid delivery to Gaza using a U.S.-built temporary pier.

At least 34,904 people have been killed and 78,514 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 267 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.