U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed developments in the Hamas-Israel cease-fire negotiations in a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, a spokesman for the ministry said Wednesday.

The conversation was held at the request of the U.S., Oncu Keceli said in a social media post. Turkey is a close supporter of Hamas and has condemned Israel’s campaign in Gaza as “genocide.”

A commercial ship traveling through the Red Sea came under repeated attack Wednesday, leaving the vessel "not under command" in an assault suspected to have been carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the British military said.

Details remained few about the attack, though it comes during the Houthis’ monthslong campaign targeting ships over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

David Hale, the former U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs and ex-ambassador to Lebanon, has said that he is not optimistic about the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Multiple pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested after clashing with police during a protest that began outside the Israeli consulate and spilled out onto the surrounding streets on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

The intense confrontations Tuesday with officers began minutes into the demonstration, after some protesters – many dressed in black, their faces covered – charged at a line of police that had blocked the group from marching. They eventually moved past the officers, but were penned in several times throughout the night by police in riot gear who did not allow protesters to disperse.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began without securing any major breakthrough for a cease-fire deal, warning that "time is of the essence" even as Hamas and Israel signaled that challenges remain.

After meetings in fellow mediating countries Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday , Blinken said that because Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps with the militant group, the focus turns to doing everything possible to "get Hamas on board" and ensure both sides agree to key details on implementation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he’s "not sure there will be a deal," The Times of Israel reported.

The Israeli online newspaper quoted a father of an Israeli hostage who met Netanyahu Tuesday as saying that his impression was that Netanyahu "doesn’t believe there will be a deal."

Hamas on Tuesday condemned claims by U.S. President Joe Biden that it was backing away from a Gaza truce deal, calling his remarks a "green light" for Israel to continue the war.

The "misleading claims... do not reflect the true position of the movement, which is keen to reach a ceasefire" agreement, Hamas said in a statement, calling Biden's remarks an "American green light for the Zionist extremist government to commit more crimes against defenseless civilians".

Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed at least 10 people.

The Israeli military said Tuesday’s strike on the Mustafa Hafez school targeted Hamas militants who had set up a command center inside and were planning and launching attacks.

Israel's demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has long rejected, threatens to unravel cease-fire talks aimed at ending the 10-month-old war, freeing scores of hostages and preventing an even wider conflict.

Officials close to the negotiations have said Israel wants to maintain a military presence in a narrow buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border it calls the Philadelphi corridor and in an area it carved out that cuts off northern Gaza from the south, known as the Netzarim corridor.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Egypt on Tuesday as part of his latest Middle East tour to push forward talks aiming to end the 10-month Gaza war.

Blinken held talks with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in the coastal city of El Alamein following a visit to Israel, where he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.