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The mediating nations urge Israel and Hamas to resume their negotiations amid fears of a wider conflagration in the region.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent talks on August 15 either in Doha or Cairo to bridge all remaining gaps in the proposed Gaza ceasefire agreement and start implementing it without any delay, the three countries said in a joint statement.

“It is the time to conclude a ceasefire agreement and release hostages and prisoners,” said the statement issued by the three countries late on Thursday.

“We have worked for months to reach framework agreement and it is now on the table, with only details of implementation missing,” it said.

The joint statement said it is “time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families”.

“There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay.”

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said patience is running out for the mediators, Egypt and Qatar.

“The US is being pushed to exert greater pressure due to the threat of a wider regional war,” he added.

“I think the idea here is that they’re going to go back to the table, come August 15, and both Hamas and Israel would be looking at hammering the details. And granted, there’s a lot of details that still remain. Which prisoners, which hostages, how many hostages in the first phase, how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return, and where would the Israelis be deployed?”

Bishara said the mediating nations believe they “have a good framework agreement now for a three-stage ceasefire agreement”.

“I think this is more or less a call for action, a call for urgency to act quicker than before.”

More to come…