ShareGAZA: The first phase of the Zionist entity-Hamas truce is drawing to a close on Saturday, but negotiations on the next stage, which should secure a permanent ceasefire, have so far been inconclusive. The ceasefire took effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s 2023 multi-pronged attack on the Zionist entity. Over the initial six-week phase, Hamas freed 25 living hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to the Zionist entity, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Zionist entity jails.
A second phase of the fragile truce was supposed to secure the release of dozens of hostages still in Gaza and pave the way for a more permanent end to the war. Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sent a delegation to Cairo, and mediator Egypt said “intensive talks” on the second phase had begun with the presence of delegations from the Zionist entity as well as fellow mediators Qatar and the United States.
But by early Saturday, there was no sign of consensus, and a Hamas source accused the Zionist entity of delaying the second phase. “The second phase of the ceasefire agreement is supposed to begin tomorrow morning, Sunday ... but the occupation is still procrastinating and continuing to violate the agreement,” the source told AFP.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sent a delegation to Cairo, and mediator Egypt said “intensive talks” on the second phase had begun with the presence of delegations from the Zionist entity as well as fellow mediators Qatar and the United States. But by early Saturday, there was no sign of consensus, and Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the group rejected “the extension of the first phase in the formulation proposed by the occupation.” He called on mediators “to oblige the occupation to abide by the agreement in its various stages”.
Ceasefire ‘must hold’
Max Rodenbeck, of the International Crisis Group think tank, said the second phase cannot be expected to start immediately. “But I think the ceasefire probably won’t collapse also,” he said. The scenario preferred by the Zionist entity is to free more hostages under an extension of the first phase, rather than a second phase, Defense Minister Israel Katz said. Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Zionist entity’s military says are dead.
Hamas, for its part, has pushed hard for phase two to begin, after it suffered staggering losses in the devastating war. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the ceasefire “must hold”. “The coming days are critical. The parties must spare no effort to avoid a breakdown of this deal,” Guterres said in New York. The truce enabled greater aid flows into the Gaza Strip, where more than 69 percent of buildings were damaged or destroyed, almost the entire population was displaced, and widespread hunger occurred because of the war, according to the United Nations.
‘Nothing but God’s mercy’
In Gaza and throughout much of the Muslim world, Saturday also marked the first day of the month of Ramadan, during which the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast. Among the rubble of Gaza’s war-wrecked neighborhoods, traditional Ramadan lanterns hung and people performed 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,” said 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.”
The Zionist attack on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 people in the Palestinian territory, a majority of them civilians, according to its health ministry, figures the UN has deemed reliable. Though the truce has effectively held, there have been a number of Zionist military strikes, including on Friday when the military said it targeted two “suspects” approaching troops in southern Gaza.
A hospital in Khan Yunis said it had received the body of one person killed in a strike. In return for the release of the captives held in Gaza, the Zionist entity released nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from its jails. Gaza militants also released five Thai hostages outside the truce deal’s terms. — AFP
