Israel carried out an air strike in northern Gaza on Sunday, rattling an already fragile ceasefire as fresh talks in Doha are set to take place on Monday.

Israel's military said the air strike targeted Hamas terrorists who "were identified operating in proximity to IDF troops and attempting to plant an explosive device in the ground in northern Gaza."

It was not immediately clear if any injuries from the strike were reported.

The air strike comes just before talks on the future of the truce are set to begin again this week.

The ceasefire that began in mid-January brought a pause in Israel's campaign of bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on southern Israel.

The ceasefire's first phase saw the release of 25 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and the bodies of eight others in exchange for the freeing of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Since the end of the first phase, Hamas has repeatedly called for an immediate start to negotiations, however, Israel has pushed for an extension of phase one until mid-April, demanding the release of half of its remaining hostages.

Earlier this month, Israel barred all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza for some 2 million people, demanding Hamas accept the revised deal.

On Sunday, Israel said it is cutting off its electricity supply from Gaza. The full effects of that are not immediately clear, but the territory's desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water.

Gaza has been largely devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will send a delegation to Qatar on Monday to advance ceasefire negotiations. A statement from the prime minister's office gave no details except to say it had "accepted the invitation of U.S.-backed mediators."

Hamas representatives met mediators in Cairo over the weekend, emphasizing the urgent need to resume humanitarian aid deliveries to the besieged territory "without restrictions or conditions", a Hamas statement said.

"Hamas stresses the urgency of forcing the occupation to immediately begin second-phase negotiations under the agreed parameters," senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi told AFP, adding this would pave the way for a permanent end to the fighting.

Adam Boehler, Trump's nominee to be special envoy for hostage affairs, held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas this week. He told CNN's "State of the Union" that he is confident a deal could be reached "within weeks" to free all civilians still held by Hamas.

Boehler said he understood Israel's "consternation" that the US had held talks at all with the group but said he had been seeking to jump-start the "fragile" negotiations.

"In the end, I think it was a very helpful meeting," he said, adding: "I think something could come together within weeks... I think there is a deal where they can get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans."

A senior Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the meetings with Boehler also focused on the release of an American-Israeli hostage being held by the militant group.

"We informed the American delegation that we don't oppose the release of the prisoner within the framework of these talks," Nono told Reuters.

Mr. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at the White House last week that the release of Edan Alexander, the 21-year-old man from New Jersey believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a "top priority for us."

Of the 251 hostages taken by the Palestinian militants during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, 58 remain in Gaza, including five Americans. Four American captives have been confirmed dead.

Hamas's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

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Israeli negotiators head to Qatar for Gaza truce talks

Israel is due to send a delegation to Doha on Monday for a fresh round of talks on extending a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, after cutting off the electricity supply to ramp up pressure on Hamas.

The first phase of the truce ended on March 1 with no agreement on subsequent stages that could secure a permanent end to the war, but both sides have since refrained from resuming full-scale fighting.

There are still significant differences over the terms of a potential second phase of the truce, which has largely halted the violence that raged since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Hamas has repeatedly called for immediate negotiations on the next phase, while Israel prefers an extension of the current one.

Israel has halted aid deliveries to Gaza amid the deadlock, and on Sunday announced it was cutting off the electricity supply in a bid to force Hamas to release hostages.

"We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after" the war, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said as he ordered the power cut.

The move echoed the early days of the war when Israel announced a "siege" on Gaza, severing the electricity supply which was only restored in mid-2024.

The sole power line between Israel and Gaza supplies the Palestinian territory's main desalination plant, and Gazans now mainly rely on solar panels and fuel-powered generators to produce electricity.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now living in tents across Gaza, where temperatures reach a low of about 12 degrees Celsius (54 Fahrenheit) at night.

Top Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the Israeli decision "to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water" was a "desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance".

- 'Long-term truce' -

Hamas has repeatedly demanded that the second phase of the truce -- brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States -- would include a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire, and the reopening of border crossings to end the blockade.

Spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP that Hamas wanted the mediators to ensure Israel "complies with the agreement... and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms".

Former US president Joe Biden had outlined a second phase involving hostage release and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces left in Gaza.

Hamas representatives met mediators in Cairo over the weekend, a Hamas statement said.

US envoy Adam Boehler, who held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas officials in recent days, said on Sunday that a deal could be reached "within weeks" to secure all remaining hostages.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the October 7 attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed dead.

Boehler told CNN there could be "a deal where they can get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans".

There are five Israeli-US nationals among the hostages, four of whom have been confirmed dead.

On CNN, the US envoy said a "long-term truce" was "real close", while in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 that aired later on Sunday, he said Washington would back any Israeli decision, including a return to war.

- 'Nothing available' -

In late February, US President Donald Trump had issued what he called a "last warning" to Hamas, threatening further destruction if the group does not release all remaining hostages.

An earlier proposal from Trump to expel Palestinians from Gaza prompted Arab leaders to offer an alternative reconstruction plan without displacement.

The initial phase of the truce, which began on January 19, reduced hostilities after more than 15 months of relentless fighting that displaced nearly all of Gaza's 2.4 million people.

During this period, 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies were exchanged for the release of about 1,800 Palestinians in Israeli custody.

The truce also allowed in much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance.

After Israel cut off the aid flow on March 2, UN rights experts accused the government of "weaponising starvation".

At a UN distribution of flour in Jabalia, northern Gaza, Abu Mahmoud Salman, 56, said that with the territory now closed off from fresh supplies, "there is nothing available".

"The markets are empty... prices are high, and there is no income. The situation in Gaza is difficult," he told AFP.

Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, while Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from both sides.

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UK hits out at Israel after Gaza electricity ‘immediately’ cut as Hamas ceasefire bargaining chip

The UK government has accused Israel of risking a breach of international law after it cut off electricity supplies to Gaza.

The shock move by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government came as the international community waited for the second stage of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas to begin.

It provoked a swift response from the Foreign Office (FCDO), with a spokesman saying: “Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool.“

“A halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, including basic needs such as electricity, risks breaching Israel’s obligations under International Humanitarian Law.”

Israel says it is cutting off its electricity supply “immediately” to Gaza a week after it blocked humanitarian aid to the territory as both sides in the conflict renegotiate the terms of a fragile truce.

The new letter from Israel's energy minister, Eli Cohen, to the Israel Electric Corporation tells it to stop selling power to Gaza. The full effects of that are not immediately clear, but the territory's desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water.

In a post to social media platform X earlier on Sunday, Mr Cohen said: “I have now signed an order to cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip immediately. Enough with the talk, it's time for action!”

The dramatic new development comes a week after Israel blocked the delivery of food, fuel and medicines to the area of more than two million people, sending prices soaring and humanitarian groups scrambling to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.

Israel said at the time the siege aimed to pressure Hamas to accept its new ceasefire proposal, as it pushes for an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire that was brought in in January. Israel had warned when it stopped all supplies that water and electricity could be next.

Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the truce and said its decision to cut off aid was “cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack" on he truce deal.

Following Mr Cohen’s announcement, UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese accused the Israeli government of genocide, posting on X: “Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water.”

Under its new terms, Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.

But Hamas has pressed to start negotiations on the ceasefire's more difficult second phase instead, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace.

Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.

The militant group on Sunday said it wrapped up the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators without changes to its position, calling for an immediate start of the ceasefire's second phase.

Gaza has been devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.

The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamas' attack in October 2023 killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, inside Israel and took 251 people hostage. Most have been released in ceasefire agreements or other arrangements.

Israel's military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many of the dead were militants.

The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.

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Israel, Hamas signal readiness for next ceasefire talks as mediators push for progress

Drone view of destroyed houses in Beit Hanoun.

Israel and Hamas signaled on Saturday they were preparing for the next phase of ceasefire negotiations, as mediators pushed ahead with talks to extend the fragile 42-day truce that began in January.

Hamas said there were "positive indicators" for the start of the ceasefire's second-phase talks but did not elaborate.

Israel also said it was preparing for talks. "Israel has accepted the invitation of the mediators backed by the U.S., and will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance the negotiations," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

A delegation from Hamas is engaging in ceasefire talks in Cairo with Egyptian mediators who have been helping facilitate the talks along with officials from Qatar. They aim to proceed to the next stage of the deal, which could open the way to ending the war.

"We affirm our readiness to engage in the second-phase negotiations in a way that meets the demands of our people, and we call for intensified efforts to aid the Gaza Strip and lift the blockade on our suffering people," Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said in a statement.

In a later statement reporting its delegation's meeting with the head of Egypt's general intelligence agency, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, Hamas affirmed the group's approval of forming a committee of what it described as "national and independent" characters to run Gaza until elections.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi earlier said Cairo had worked in cooperation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza after the end of the Israel-Gaza war.

His remarks came during the Arab summit which adopted Egypt's alternative reconstruction plan for Gaza, as opposed to U.S. President Donald Trump's "Middle East Riviera" vision.

Even as diplomacy continued, an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in Rafah in southern Gaza on Saturday, medical sources said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a drone that crossed from Israel into southern Gaza and "several suspects" who tried to collect it in what appeared to be a botched smuggling attempt.

The strike came after an Israeli drone strike killed two people in Gaza on Friday. The Israeli military said it attacked a group of suspected militants operating near its troops in northern Gaza and planting an explosive device in the ground.

The Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect in January calls for the remaining 59 hostages in Hamas captivity to be freed in a second phase, during which final plans would be negotiated for an end to the war.

The first phase of the ceasefire ended last week. Israel has since imposed a total blockade on all goods entering the enclave, demanding that Hamas free the remaining hostages without beginning the negotiations to end the Gaza war.

Fighting has been halted since January 19 and Hamas has released 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israeli authorities believe fewer than half of the remaining 59 hostages are still alive.

Israel's assault on the enclave has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. It has also internally displaced nearly Gaza's entire population and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.

The assault began after Hamas-led Islamist fighters raided southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

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