(NewsNation) — Cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left talks with mediators from Egypt and Qatar without a deal in place on Wednesday.

Blinken also discussed ongoing negotiations with the Turkish foreign minister over the phone on Wednesday.

Egypt expressed skepticism Wednesday as more proposal details emerged. The challenges around the so-called bridging proposal appear to undermine the optimism for an imminent agreement that Blinken carried into his latest Mideast visit this week.

Diplomatic efforts had redoubled as fears grow of a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, both blamed on Israel, and threats of retaliation.

The Department of Defense said U.S. warships are moving closer to the Middle East to defend Israel if Iran were to attack.

Hamas won’t agree to proposal: Egypt

Officials in Egypt told the Associated Press that the Hamas militant group will not agree to the bridging proposal for several reasons — ones in addition to the long-held wariness over whether a deal would truly remove Israeli forces from Gaza and end the war.

One Egyptian official, with direct knowledge of the negotiations, said the bridging proposal requires the implementation of the deal’s first phase, which has Hamas releasing the most vulnerable civilian hostages captured in its Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. Parties during the first phase would negotiate the second and third phases with no “guarantees” to Hamas from Israel or mediators.

He also said the proposal doesn’t clearly say Israel will withdraw its forces from two strategic corridors in Gaza, the Philadelphi corridor alongside Egypt and the Netzarim corridor east to west across the territory. Israel offers to downsize its forces in the Philadelphi corridor, with “promises” to withdraw from the area, he said.

However, Blinken told journalists that the bridging proposal is “very clear on the schedule and the locations of (Israeli military) withdrawals from Gaza,” but no details on either have emerged.

Blinken also said that because Israel has accepted the proposal, the focus turns to doing everything possible to “get Hamas on board.” Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram daily reported Blinken received a “clear Egyptian demand for the U.S. to work towards a well-framed deal with clear deadlines and clear objectives to encourage Hamas to sign the deal.”

But there is skepticism, along with fatigue, among many in Israel about Netanyahu’s commitment to securing a cease-fire deal. “As long as the entire group of professional negotiators believes that Netanyahu is scuttling a deal, there won’t be any confidence,” commentator Nadav Eyal wrote in the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “And, in the absence of confidence, Israeli society will remain torn and shattered.”

Ceasefire talks are expected to continue through the week.

On the ground in Gaza

Six bodies of hostages were recovered this week in Gaza.

“In what world do families have to beg and cry for the return of their family members alive and murdered?” Esther Buchshtab, the mother of one of the men, 35-year-old Yagev Buchshtab, asked at his funeral Wednesday.

Now, Israel said more than 100 hostages remain in Hamas custody.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Wednesday launched more than 50 rockets, hitting several private homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Hezbollah said Wednesday’s attack was in response to an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon on Tuesday night which reportedly hit a school in Gaza, killing 12 people.

Gaza health leaders say the school housed displaced Palestinians while the Israeli military claims Hamas embedded forces inside there.

The war in Gaza, now in its 10th month, has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Aid groups fear the outbreak of polio and other diseases.

The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Over 100 hostages were released during last year’s cease-fire in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages, though Israeli authorities estimate around a third are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.