The first phase of the Israel-Hamas truce is drawing to a detailed on Saturday (March 1, 2025), however negotiations on the subsequent stage, which ought to safe a everlasting ceasefire, have to date been inconclusive.
The ceasefire took impact on January 19 after greater than 15 months of warfare sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 assault on Israel, the deadliest within the nation’s historical past.
Editorial | Truce underneath fireplace: On the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Over the preliminary six-week phase, Gaza militants freed 25 residing hostages and returned the our bodies of eight others to Israel, in alternate for lots of of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
A second phase of the delicate truce was supposed to safe the discharge of dozens of hostages nonetheless in Gaza and pave the way in which for a extra everlasting finish to the warfare.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had despatched a delegation to Cairo, and mediator Egypt mentioned “intensive talks” on the second phase had begun with the presence of delegations from Israel as nicely as fellow mediators Qatar and the United States.
But by early Saturday, there was no signal of consensus, and Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem mentioned the group rejected “the extension of the first phase in the formulation proposed by the occupation (Israel)”.
He referred to as on mediators “to oblige the occupation to abide by the agreement in its various stages”.
Max Rodenbeck, of the International Crisis Group assume tank, mentioned the second phase can’t be anticipated to begin instantly.
“But I think the ceasefire probably won’t collapse also,” he mentioned.
Ceasefire ‘should maintain’
The most popular Israeli state of affairs is to free extra hostages underneath an extension of the first phase, reasonably than a second phase, Defence Minister Israel Katz mentioned.
A Palestinian supply shut to the talks informed AFP that Israel had proposed to lengthen the first phase in successive one-week intervals with a view to conducting hostage-prisoner swaps every week, including that Hamas had rejected the plan.
Of the 251 hostages seized throughout Hamas’s assault, 58 are nonetheless held in Gaza, together with 34 the Israeli army says are useless.
Hamas, for its half, has pushed exhausting for phase two to start, after it suffered staggering losses within the devastating warfare.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mentioned on Friday that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire “must hold”.
“The coming days are critical. The parties must spare no effort to avoid a breakdown of this deal,” Guterres mentioned in New York.
The truce enabled higher assist flows into the Gaza Strip, the place greater than 69 % of buildings have been broken or destroyed, virtually all the inhabitants was displaced, and widespread starvation occurred as a result of of the warfare, in accordance to the United Nations.
The Gaza warfare started with Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,218 folks, largely civilians, in accordance to an AFP tally of official figures.
The Israeli retaliation has killed 48,388 folks in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, in accordance to the well being ministry within the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN has deemed dependable.
‘Nothing however God’s mercy’
In Gaza and all through a lot of the Muslim world, Saturday additionally marked the first day of the month of Ramadan, throughout which the devoted observe a dawn-to-dusk quick.
Among the rubble of Gaza’s war-wrecked neighbourhoods, conventional Ramadan lanterns hung and other people carried out nightly prayers on the eve of the holy month.
“Ramadan has come this year, and we are on the streets with no shelter, no work, no money, nothing,” mentioned Ali Rajih, a resident of the hard-hit Jabalia camp in north Gaza.
“My eight children and I are homeless, we’re living on the streets of Jabalia camp, with nothing but God’s mercy.”
Though the truce has successfully held, there have been a quantity of Israeli strikes.
On Friday the army mentioned it focused two “suspects” approaching troops in southern Gaza, the place a hospital mentioned it had obtained the physique of one particular person killed in a strike.
In return for the discharge of the captives held in Gaza, Israel launched almost 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from its jails. Gaza militants additionally launched 5 Thai hostages outdoors the truce deal’s phrases.
The United States on Friday introduced the approval of the sale of greater than $3 billion in munitions, bulldozers and associated tools to ally Israel.
It comes amid a serious army operation launched by Israel within the occupies West Bank on February 21, two days after the Gaza ceasefire started.
As half of the operation, the army has razed many properties, and an AFP journalist on Saturday noticed an Israeli excavator destroying a house within the largely vacant Nur Shams refugee camp within the northern West Bank.
According to the UN, not less than 55 Palestinians and three Israeli troopers have died within the operation, which has displaced over 40,000 Palestinians.
Published – March 01, 2025 07:58 pm IST
