Israel reiterated on Wednesday its refusal to halt the Gaza offensive for a resumption of hostage-release talks with Hamas, after mediator Qatar said it had given the Palestinian militants a U.S.-backed truce proposal.

Efforts to wind down the almost eight-month-old war have stumbled over Israel’s declared aim of eliminating Hamas as a governing and military force, while Hamas has given no sign it would step down and wants the Israeli offensive called off.

“Any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted only under fire,” Gallant said in remarks carried by Israeli media after he flew abroad a warplane to inspect the Gaza front.

CIA director discusses ceasefire

Aya, like many in the Gaza Strip, said people held out hopes that reported talks between officials from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt in Doha on Wednesday would advance a ceasefire deal involving the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and some of the Palestinians jailed in Israel.

CIA Director William Burns was meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister, an official briefed on the talks said.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday the administration was waiting for a response from Hamas through the Qatari mediators to a ceasefire proposal that U.S. President Joe Biden revealed on Friday.

Qatar said on Tuesday that the proposal was now much closer to the positions of both sides.

Hamas has said it views the contents of the plan positively and has criticised Washington for what it described as attempts to blame the Palestinian militant group for hampering it.

But a spokesman for Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, reiterated on Tuesday it could not agree to any deal unless Israel makes a “clear” commitment to a permanent truce and complete withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it cannot do that until Hamas is wiped out.

U.S. officials say that since it is an Israeli plan, Israel is likely to accept it. Qatar has said Israel needs to give a clear position on the plan that represents the whole government, parts of which have opposed any kind of truce.

Also on Wednesday, the Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad group said a delegation led by its leader Ziad al-Nakhala arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian mediators on ways to “end the Zionist aggression on Gaza Strip and efforts to send aid.”

Fighting continued in Rafah, the town on the border with Egypt which Israeli forces swept into last month in what the military said was a limited operation to root out Hamas’ last intact combat units.

“The forces found combat means and eliminated armed saboteurs who operated nearby and posed a threat,” it said.

Remaining residents in Rafah - from where most of the million people who had taken refuge there have fled again - said Israeli tanks mounted raids into the centre and deeper into the west before retreating east and south again.

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) issued a new plea for a ceasefire on Wednesday on X, describing the lasting impact of almost eight months of war.

“The war in #Gaza has upended millions of Palestinian lives & caused catastrophic damage to the natural environment that they depend upon for water, clean air, food & livelihoods. Restoring environmental services will take decades - & cannot even start until a #ceasefire,” it said.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas as it launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza last October after militants stormed across the border into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies. About 120 hostages remain in Gaza.

The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 36,000 people in densely populated Gaza, according to its health authorities, who say thousands more bodies are buried under rubble.