Israel is attending talks on Thursday with the Palestinian group Hamas on moving to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreed between the two in January, according to Egypt, which is hosting the talks.
But even as the talks get under way, Israeli officials have made it clear they are seeking to change the terms of the agreed-upon three-phase deal, jeopardising its success.
Under the terms of the deal, the first six-week phase – scheduled to end on March 1st – would see the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza’s main population areas, an increase in humanitarian aid into Gaza and the return of displaced people to the north of the enclave.
As part of the deal, in return for approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli detention, Hamas has released 33 of the captives – including eight bodies.
The terms of the second phase of the agreement were kept intentionally vague, anticipating that many of the details would be hammered out in future negotiations. Among the terms to be agreed upon were details of a lasting ceasefire to end Israel’s war on Gaza – which has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians – the complete withdrawal of Israel’s forces from the enclave and the release of all remaining captives held by Hamas in exchange for an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners.
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The third stage of the agreement would focus on the future governance of Gaza and the reconstruction of the destroyed enclave.
What has Israel said about the talks?
On Thursday, a statement provided to reporters by an anonymous Israeli official stated that Israel has decided not to withdraw from the stretch of land it occupies along the Gaza-Egypt border, despite that being part of the previous agreement.
“We will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor. We will not allow the Hamas murderers to again roam our borders with pick-up trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rearm through smuggling,” the official said.
Satellite images obtained by Al Jazeera earlier this month showed the Israeli military had begun new construction in the area around the border.
Also on Thursday, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that Israel’s delegation to the talks in Cairo would “see whether we have common ground to negotiate”.
“We said we are ready to extend the framework [of phase one] in return for the release of more hostages,” Saar told reporters.
Have all the exchanges agreed for phase one been met?
Hamas handed over the coffins of the last four of the Israeli captives to be exchanged during the first phase of the deal without ceremony on Wednesday, and Israel later released more than 600 Palestinian prisoners.
The release of the prisoners was supposed to take place on Saturday, but Israel delayed the handover in protest against a ceremony held in Gaza when the bodies of four Israeli captives were released last week.
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Hamas slammed the delay, denying that the ceremony had been humiliating and calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision “a deliberate attempt to disrupt the agreement, [that] represents a blatant violation of its terms, and shows the occupation’s lack of reliability in implementing its obligations”, a member of the Hamas political bureau, Izzat al-Risheq, said in a statement on Sunday.
Is this the first time Israel has been accused of breaching the ceasefire terms?
Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) has reported more than 350 violations by Israel, including military incursions, gunfire, air strikes, intensified surveillance and the obstruction of aid since the ceasefire began.
According to the GMO, the Israeli army has killed and injured dozens of Palestinians through air strikes as well as shootings since the ceasefire came into effect. The GMO has previously reported delays in allowing displaced families to return to areas in northern Gaza as well as shortfalls in the agreed levels of aid and emergency relief allowed into the enclave.
Is the US pushing for an extension of the ceasefire?
United States President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is understood to be flying to the region this week to push for an extension to the current phase, with a view to entering stage two.
Witkoff also announced on Tuesday that a “summit” of developers would take place to determine Gaza’s future. However, it was not clear when or where this summit would be held, or whether it referred to the three-stage ceasefire deal, or Trump’s surprise plan to unilaterally “own” Gaza, as evidenced in a recent video shared on social media by the US president.
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Trump has consistently referred to himself as a “peacemaker” and emphasised his role in securing the ceasefire. But – aside from his much-derided Gaza plan that critics have said would effectively lead to the ethnic cleansing of its Palestinian population – he has been more ambivalent about the future of the ceasefire deal and implied that it is Israel’s decision whether the war continues or not.
Is the ceasefire popular in Israel?
Among the families of the captives, yes. Among Israel’s far-right and settler movements, no.
Many of the families of the captives regard Netanyahu as having manipulated both the war and ceasefire negotiations for his political ends.
However, the negotiated release of some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners has also drawn the anger of Israel’s far-right and settler movements.
When the terms of the ceasefire were first agreed, the far-right then-National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir resigned his cabinet post in protest. At the same time, the hardline pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was only persuaded to remain in the cabinet with an implicit assurance from Netanyahu that the deal would not lead to a permanent end to the war.
