Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of people including two families in both Gaza and Lebanon, while Hezbollah fired a volley of 55 rockets into northern Israel in response.
World leaders urged restraint and tried to frame the ceasefire negotiations as heading in a positive direction.
But in an interview with Sky News, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon told us no progress had been made so far at the talks and the two sides appear to be just as far apart as ever.
Hamas is not at the negotiations but messages and updates have been passed on to them on the sidelines.
US President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday he was “optimistic” and there are “just a couple more issues” that US, Qatari, and Egyptian negotiators have to resolve between the two sides.
But during the interview, conducted over Skype from an undisclosed location in Beirut, Dr Ahmad Abdulhadi told us that Israel was resisting agreeing to a permanent ceasefire and the same sticking points existed but, according to Hamas, the Israelis had imposed yet more conditions.
“Biden is just trying to give a positive impression,” he said. “But the first round of talks came with no improvements.
“The mediators told us the points we disagree on haven’t been solved and [Benjamin] Netanyahu has added yet more conditions and made it even more complicated.”
A statement from Mr Netanyahu’s office on Saturday seemed to reiterate the American version, expressing “cautious optimism regarding the possibility of progress on the deal”.
The Israel prime minister’s statement went on to say it was “in accordance with the updated American proposal (based on the 27 May framework) including components acceptable to Israel”.
It added: “It is hoped that the heavy pressure on Hamas by the United States and the mediators will remove its opposition to the American proposal and will lead to a breakthrough in the talks.”
‘No one believes Netanyahu’
But in our interview, the Hamas spokesman said: “No one believes Netanyahu.
“Hamas accepted Biden’s previous proposal and the UN security council decision – and yet in every case Netanyahu is refusing to agree and putting up obstacles.”
When pressed on the urgency to at least agree a pause in fighting given the milestone of more than 40,000 dead in Gaza has now been surpassed, according to figures compiled by Palestinian officials, Dr Abdulhadi replied: “Hamas has done everything to reach a deal to stop this war but it’s Israel who’s carrying it on and who’s insisting on committing crimes – and the Americans are supporting them whilst the world just watches it all.
“We don’t want the war to stop only temporarily and on Israeli terms – so they take back their hostages and then just carry on committing massacres afterwards.
“We want a permanent ceasefire because that’s what benefits our people most – and it’s our people who are telling us not to accept a deal without a permanent ceasefire.”
Palestinians at the site of Saturday’s Israeli airstrike in Zawayda, central Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Survivors wade through rubble in Lebanon and Gaza
In Zawayda in Gaza, they were still picking through rubble trying to recover their dead after an overnight airstrike on Friday that killed at least 18 people from one family.
The Israelis say Hamas fighters were operating from the area but Palestinian doctors say the strike hit a family shelter. Among the dead were eight children and four women.
In Lebanon, in the village of Kfor near Nabatieh town, some distance from the frontline border area with Israel, we were at the site of another overnight Israeli airstrike.
Rubble near Nabatieh after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon
The strike hit an apartment housing workers and a family of four that included two toddlers.
Two teddy bears were spotted among the rubble as well as children’s shoes, clothes, and a wrecked child’s baby seat.
A teddy bear amid the rubble in Kfor near Nabatieh town, Lebanon
Israeli officials say they were targeting a Hezbollah munitions factory but this was strenuously denied by the locals, including the owner of the construction business where the apartments were.
Sitting adjacent to the housing block, we saw a wrecked warehouse that seemed to have stocks of steel girders.
There was no sign of any fire you might expect if a cache of munitions had been bombed.
A destroyed warehouse near Nabatieh
“They’ve just killed innocent people and destroyed a civilian house and a business that’s got nothing to do with the situation in this region,” the business owner, Hussein Tohmaz, told us.
While reporters and villagers gathered to question him, Israeli jets flew above us – twice causing dramatic sonic booms as they broke through the sound barrier.
Kfor factory owner Hussein Tohmaz
“That’s it, leave now. Please leave,” one of the local officials urged us.
Hezbollah responded by launching a barrage of more than 50 rockets into northern Israel. The Israeli army also said two soldiers were injured after a rocket from Lebanon fell in the area of Misgav Am.
The US secretary of state Anthony Blinken flies to Israel for more talks on Sunday to try to push for a deal.
His visit follows a joint British-French diplomatic trip to Israel with the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy joining forces with his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne to warn this is a “perilous moment” for the region.
The region is on edge amid widespread fears that Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are planning retaliation for twin assassinations in Tehran and Beirut that the leaders are blaming on Israel.
In a joint article in the Observer newspaper, the two foreign ministers say “one missed calculation and the situation risks spiralling into an even deeper and more intractable conflict”.
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