Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to recall a Mossad intelligence team from Doha after reaching a "deadlock" in negotiations aimed at renewing the ceasefire and exchanging hostages with Hamas.
According to a statement by the Agence France-Presse, "After reaching a deadlock in the negotiations, and upon the directive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad Chief David Barnea ordered his team in Doha to return to Israel."
The Israeli team was in Doha to discuss the resumption of the ceasefire in Gaza with Qatari mediators, focusing on hostage release and establishing new ceasefire standards.
Hamas has held Israel responsible for not extending the humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying they refused "to deal positively with the offers [they] received through mediators".
Israel claimed that Hamas violated the agreement's terms by launching missiles towards its territory at night.
Qatari negotiators have announced the continuation of mediation efforts, repeating the call for an urgent ceasefire to avoid worsening the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has also stressed the need to resume the humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and simultaneously work towards a comprehensive political solution for all Palestinian territories.
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to a 'temporary ceasefire' on Wednesday, Islamabad said, after an airstrike and ground fighting sent tensions between the South Asian neighbours soaring, killing more than a dozen civilians.
Israel will allow Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt to open on Wednesday and increase the amount of humanitarian aid coming into the enclave, public broadcaster Kan reported, after Hamas handed over more bodies of deceased hostages.
Fresh fighting broke out on Wednesday along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing more than a dozen civilians and troops to shatter a fragile peace after weekend clashes that killed dozens.
Toxic gas and a locked door that barred access to a roof were responsible for most of the deaths in a devastating fire in a Bangladesh garment factory and an adjoining chemical warehouse, a fire official said on Wednesday.
Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for the presidency, has died at the age of 80, sources close to him said on Wednesday.