HAMAS said today that its delegation has left Cairo and that talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release will resume next week.

The move makes it unlikely that mediators will be able to broker a deal before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Mediators had looked to Ramadan as an informal deadline because the month of dawn-to-dusk fasting often sees Israeli-Palestinian violence linked to access to a major Jerusalem holy site. 

Egyptian officials had earlier said that the negotiations had reached an impasse over Hamas’s demand for a phased process culminating in an end to the war. 

But they did not rule out a deal before Ramadan, which is expected to begin on Sunday.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said Israel “refuses to commit to and give guarantees regarding the ceasefire, the return of the displaced and withdrawal from the areas of its incursion.” 

But he said that the talks were still ongoing and would resume next week.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for weeks to broker an agreement on a six-week ceasefire and the release of 40 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

The Egyptian officials said that Hamas has agreed to the main terms of such an agreement as a first stage but wants commitments that it will lead to an eventual, more permanent, ceasefire. 

Hamas has said that it will not release all of the remaining hostages without a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory. 

Hamas and their allies are believed to be holding about 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others captured during Hamas’s October 7 attack into Israel that sparked the war.

Hamas is also demanding the release of a large number of prisoners in exchange for the remaining hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly ruled out Hamas’s demands, and said that Israel intends to resume the offensive after any ceasefire until “total victory.”

He has insisted that military pressure will be key in bringing about the release of the hostages.

During the Hamas-led attack on October 7, some 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage. 

Israel launched a massive air, land and sea campaign in Gaza, killing at least 30,717 Palestinians, driving some 80 per cent of the population from their homes and pushing hundreds of thousands into famine.

The United Nations says one in six children younger than two in the north of the strip suffers from acute malnutrition.