Arsenal are ready to listen to offers to sell Brazil forward Gabriel Jesus, 27, this summer. (Football Insider)

Newcastle striker Callum Wilson’s future remains uncertain with the 32-year-old Englishman strongly linked with a move away from St James’ Park. (Mirror)

Outgoing Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel is the leading contender to be the next Manchester United manager as the Premier League club looks to replace Erik ten Hag. (Football Insider)

Borussia Dortmund want to keep on-loan England winger Jadon Sancho, 24, next season, but a permanent move from Manchester United is currently unlikely and not affordable for the German side. (Sky Sport Germany)

Manchester United are hoping to raise £100m by selling Sancho and England forward Mason Greenwood, 22, this summer. (Give Me Sport)

Stuttgart’s Guinea striker Serhou Guirassy, 28, has emerged as a target for Arsenal as Mikel Arteta looks to bolster his attacking options. (Fichajes – in Spanish)

England midfielder Kalvin Phillips’ hopes of rejoining Leeds United this summer depend on the Elland Road side earning promotion back to the Premier League. (Football Insider)

Aston Villa are close to signing Atletico Madrid defender Mario Hermoso, 28. (AS – in Spanish)

AC Milan are ready to consider signing 24-year-old Canadian forward Jonathan David from Lille in the summer transfer window. (Calciomercato – in Italian)

By John Sparks, international correspondent

A week that started with cautious optimism for a breakthrough in negotiations between Israel and Hamas has ended, perhaps unsurprisingly, with the prospect of peace in Gaza looking as distant as ever.

It has taken two days of talks in Cairo, with a delegation from Hamas – and intermediaries from Egypt, Qatar and the United States – to expose the limitations of this exercise.  

There were indications in the lead-up to these talks that the parties had things to usefully discuss – even areas where they could reach agreement.

Israel was apparently open to a six-week cessation in hostilities in exchange for the release of some 30 Israel hostages by Hamas.

Several hundred Palestinian prisoners currently sitting in Israeli jails would also have been released as part of the deal. 

That was something the US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, described as “extremely generous”. 

The head of Hamas’s political bureau, Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, seemed engaged, stating that delegation members would be traveling to Cairo with “positive and flexible positions”. 

However, there was a fundamental flaw in all this. What follows a temporary ceasefire? What comes next? 

Hamas wants any truce to lead to a permanent ceasefire. The Israeli government is committed to the organisation’s total destruction. 

It is a contradiction that both sides, and all the intermediaries and concerned world leaders, would be hard-pushed to solve.

It seems there can’t be agreement in the short-term without an agreement down the track.

The Israeli prime minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, rounded on the issue in his first recorded comments on the talks. 

“While Israel showed willingness, Hamas remained entrenched in its extreme positions – and on top it – their demand that we withdraw all our forces from the Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas intact – the State of Israel cannot accept this.”

The threat of an Israeli incursion into Rafah, now packed with well over a million civilians, has hung over these discussions with many regarding it as a negotiation technique.

Yet if Netanyahu is committed to the destruction of Hamas, as he says he is, his forces are likely to invade Rafah anyway. The Israeli minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, suggested today that it could happen imminently. 

All in all, it proves the limits of a negotiation between two sides who are deeply committed to the undoing of each other.

The likely consequences seem desperately predictable.