A new Gaza ceasefire deal under which Israel would recover all hostages held by Hamas is possible, even within weeks, a US negotiator said after holding rare direct talks with the Palestinian militant group.

JERUSALEM — Israel says it is cutting off its electricity supply to Gaza . The full effects of that are not immediately clear, but the territory’s desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water.

France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have announced their support for Egypt's proposed rebuild, which is in direct competition with Trump's plan.

The meetings leapfrogged the seemingly moribund cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas. They also broke with the longstanding U.S. approach toward Hamas, which sought to isolate the Palestinian armed group through a “no-contact” policy.

Foreign ministers from Muslim nations on Saturday rejected calls by U.S. President Donald Trump to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population and backed a plan for an administrative committee of Palestinians to govern the territory to allow reconstruction to go ahead.

Officials from USAID say the the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. humanitarian agency have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in contractual payments to aid groups.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Britain welcomed the plan, which calls for Gaza to be rebuilt over five years.

Israel’s leaders promised that their military campaign in Gaza would help save the lives of hostages. At least 41 have died in captivity, some killed by Hamas and others in Israeli airstrikes.

The Israeli right wing’s long term ambitions for Gaza loom over the Trump administration’s more immediate interventions in the Middle East.