Hamas officials are in Egypt ahead of talks with Israel that the United States hopes will bring a halt to the fighting in Gaza and release of hostages despite contentious issues such as disarmament of the Palestinian group under Donald Trump’s plan, Reuters reports.

Israeli negotiators are due to travel to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh later in the day for talks focused on freeing hostages, part of the US president’s 20-point blueprint for ending the two-year-old conflict.

A Palestinian official close to the talks was sceptical about prospects of a breakthrough given deep mutual mistrust, saying Hamas and other Palestinian factions worried that Israel might ditch negotiations once it recovered the hostages.

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