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Agence France-Presse

The first phase of the Israel-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 October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country’s history.
Over the initial six-week phase, Gaza militants freed 25 living hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli 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.
Israeli 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 Israel 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 Israel 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 said.

A Palestinian source close to the talks meanwhile told Agence France-Presse that, despite the absence of a Hamas delegation in Cairo, discussions were under way seeking a way through the impasse.
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 preferred Israeli scenario is to free more hostages under an extension of the first phase, rather than a second phase, Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli 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 Israel-Hamas 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 per cent 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.

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 neighbourhoods, 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 Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally of official figures.
The Israeli retaliation has killed more than 48,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN has deemed reliable.
Though the truce has effectively held, there have been a number of Israeli strikes, including on Friday when the military said it targeted two “suspects” approaching troops in southern Gaza.
A hospital in Khan Younis said it had received the body of one person killed in a strike.
In return for the release of the captives held in Gaza, Israel released nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from its jails.
Gaza militants also released five Thai hostages outside the truce deal’s terms.


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Israel-Gaza war

Uncertainty looms as Gaza truce’s first phase due to expire

The Nijim family hangs laundry on the ruins of their property amid widespread destruction by the Israeli military, in Jabalia, Gaza Strip, on Febuary 18. Photo: AP

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) meeting with (left to right) member of the Hamas political bureau Nizar Awadallah, deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau Khalil al-Hayya, and the head of the political council of Hamas Mohammad Ismail Darwish, in Tehran. Photo: AFP

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Photo: dpa

Hamas ready to free all hostages at once in Gaza truce phase 2

People walk near a poster of hostage Omer Wenkert, at the site of the Nova festival where party goers were killed and kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas attack. Hamas signalled on Wednesday that it was willing to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during the next phase of the ongoing ceasefire agreement. Photo: Reuters

People carry placards with pictures of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who have been held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack, as people gather to watch news coverage on the day of the release of hostages in Tel Aviv on February 1, 2025. Photo: Reuters

Hamas says ready for more ceasefire talks after prisoner exchange

Freed Palestinian prisoners arrive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Photo: EPA-EFE

Shlomo Mantzur, Tsachi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi and Itzjik Elgarat were abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack. Photo: Hostages Family Forum via AP

The condition of hostages handed over in recent weeks have intensified public fury in Israel. Photo: AFP

The display of coffins by Hamas has been criticised internationally. Photo: AFP

Freed Palestinians arrive in the Gaza Strip after being released from an Israeli prison. Photo: AP

Israel army admits ‘complete failure’ on October 7, says it underestimated Hamas

Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated southern Israel on October 7, 2023. File photo: Reuters

Palestinians celebrate by a captured Israeli tank at the southern Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis on October 7, 2023. File photo: AP

Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian on October 7, 2023. File photo: AP

The aftermath of a Hamas attack on a music festival in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. File photo: AP

The aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas gunmen on Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel. File photo: Reuters

Hamas returns 4 Israeli bodies said to include a mother and her 2 young children

A woman is overcome with emotion as the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children, are handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Photo: AP

People in Tel Aviv on the day the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages, Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, are handed over under the terms of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Photo: Reuters

A Hamas militant stands near coffins during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas. Photo: Reuters

A member of the Red Cross stands near a coffin during the handover of deceased hostages on February 20, 2025. Photo: Reuters

Hamas armed wing says it will hand over bodies of 4 hostages ‘tonight’

Palestinians walk near the rubble of buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City. Photo: Reuters

Mourners raise a cut-out of Shiri Bibas and her son Kfir, as people pay their respects at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on February 26. Photo: AFP

News

World

Middle East

A second phase of the truce is supposed to secure the release of dozens of hostages still in Gaza and pave the way for the end of the war


A second phase of the truce is supposed to secure the release of dozens of hostages still in Gaza and pave the way for the end of the war.


Israel

Palestinian Territories