Six South African activists who were detained by Israel while attempting to reach Gaza as part of an aid flotilla said Wednesday they were subjected to harsher treatment than other detainees because of South Africa's role in a genocide case against Israel.

U.S. President Donald Trump's top adviser for the Middle East and other senior officials joined the third day of peace talks between Israel and Hamas in an Egyptian resort on Wednesday, a sign that negotiators aim to dive deeply into the toughest issues of an American plan to end the war in Gaza.

Turkey's foreign ministry on Wednesday lashed out at an "act of piracy" after Israeli forces intercepted several more boats heading for Gaza, saying several Turkish lawmakers were on board.

"The intervention in international waters against the Freedom Flotilla... is an act of piracy," it said in a statement, describing it as "an attack on civil activists, including Turkish citizens and members of parliament".

Saudi Arabia condemned on Wednesday a visit by Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir to the Al-Aqsa compound, a disputed area in occupied east Jerusalem home to Islam's third-holiest site that is also Judaism's holiest place.

Riyadh voiced its "condemnation of the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli officials and settlers under the protection of the occupation forces, reiterating its strongest condemnation of the continued attacks on the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that negotiations held in Egypt for an end to the war in Gaza were advancing in a "spirit of optimism".

"The mediators are making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the implementation of the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails among all parties," Taher al-Nunu told AFP from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, where indirect talks began on Monday between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas said Tuesday it was working to overcome "all obstacles" as Palestinian militant leaders held indirect talks with Israel aimed at ending the two-year Gaza war.

"The delegation of the movement participating in the current negotiations in Egypt seeks to surmount all obstacles to achieving an agreement that fulfils the aspirations of our people in Gaza," senior Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said in a televised speech.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that Israel should have ceased operations in Gaza already in line with U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan.

"Regarding the ceasefire, this question should be directed first to the Israeli occupation government. It was supposed to actually cease fire if the statements made by the prime minister there regarding adherence to the Trump plan were true," Majed al-Ansari told reporters in Doha.

Indirect talks in Egypt between Israel and Hamas have been "positive" so far, two sources close to the Palestinian militants' negotiating team told AFP on Tuesday, with discussions set to resume around midday.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was meeting Tuesday with Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi in the presence of U.S. officials, a Syrian government source told AFP, after deadly clashes overnight in Kurdish-majority districts of Aleppo city.

It is the first encounter since July between Sharaa and Abdi, head of the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and comes as implementation of a March deal between the two on integrating Kurdish institutions in the country's north and northeast into the state has largely stalled.

A U.S. delegation led by presidential envoy Steve Witkoff will join talks aimed at a truce in Gaza and hostage and prisoner exchange on Wednesday, Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said.

In a joint press conference with his German counterpart, Abdelatty said Tuesday he and Johann Wadephul "had a long conversation with Steve Witkoff, who is expected in Egypt in the coming hours".