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Agence France-Presse

US President Donald Trump said on Monday there were “no guarantees” that a fragile ceasefire in Gaza would hold, as he prepared to discuss its future with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu was in Washington for talks with the new Trump administration on a second phase of the truce with Hamas, which has not yet been finalised.
Just over two weeks after the ceasefire took hold, two Hamas officials said the group was ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase, which could help secure a lasting cessation of violence.
Before leaving Israel, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, countering Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets Trump on Tuesday.
It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Netanyahu said showed “the strength of the Israeli-American alliance”.
Netanyahu on Monday said he would extend his visit and return to Israel on Saturday, an Axios reporter said on social media.
With fragile ceasefires holding in both Gaza and Lebanon – where an Israeli campaign badly weakened Iran-backed Hezbollah – Israel has turned its focus to the occupied West Bank and an operation that it says is aimed at rooting out extremism that has killed dozens.

Trump, who has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire deal after 15 months of war, said on Sunday that negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were “progressing”.
The president later told reporters that he had “no guarantees that the peace is going to hold”.
Netanyahu’s office said he would begin discussions with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the Gaza truce.
Witkoff said he was “certainly hopeful” that the truce will hold.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and could lead to a more permanent end to the war.
One Hamas official, speaking on condition on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the Palestinian group “has informed the mediators … that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase”.
A second official said Hamas was “waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round”.
The Washington discussions were also expected to cover normalisation efforts between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which Riyadh froze early in the Gaza war.


Under the Gaza ceasefire’s first, 42-day phase, Hamas is to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Four hostage-prisoner exchanges have already taken place, and the truce has led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza.
It has also allowed displaced Gazans to return to the territory’s north, which Israel had blocked before. According to UN humanitarian office OCHA, more than 545,000 people have reached the north since the truce began.
During Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,498 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.
While Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden sustained Washington’s military and diplomatic backing of Israel, he also criticised the mounting death toll and aid restrictions.
Back in office, Trump moved quickly to lift sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and reportedly approved a shipment of 2,000-pound (900kg) bombs that the Biden administration had blocked.
Trump has also repeatedly touted a plan to “clean out” Gaza, calling for Palestinians to move to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Jordan.

Qatar, which jointly mediated the ceasefire along with the United States and Egypt, underscored the importance of allowing Palestinians to “return to their homes and land”.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, meanwhile, warned on Monday that relocating Gazans “would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
In the West Bank – which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory – Israel said it had killed at least 50 militants and detained more than 100 “wanted individuals” in an operation that began on January 21.
Israel’s military says the offensive is aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, where militants have long operated.
On Sunday, Palestinian official news agency WAFA said Israeli forces “simultaneously detonated about 20 buildings” in the Jenin refugee camp.
On Monday, the Palestinian presidency denounced the operation in the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and where violence has surged since the Gaza war began.
In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing”.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Israel-Gaza war

‘No guarantees’ Gaza truce will hold, Trump says ahead of Netanyahu talks

A protester holds a placard demanding the return of all hostages held in Gaza, outside the US consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Donald Trump during his first presidency in September 2020. Netanyahu was in Washington on Monday for talks with the new Trump administration. Photo: Reuters

Palestinians make their way along a road amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in southern Gaza on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Jordan says King Abdullah accepts Trump’s invite to White House on February 11

Jordan’s King Abdullah at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday. The king will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordanian state news agency reported on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Israel says 8 hostages set for release in first phase of truce are dead

Soldiers sit under a banner, with a yellow Star of David, that reads “Release the hostages!” on the day of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp, at a ceremony in Haifa, Israel on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Palestinians secure aid trucks moving along a road in Rafah, southern Gaza earlier this month. Photo: Middle East Images / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images / Tribune News Service

Palestinians displaced by Israel to the south during the war make their way through a checkpoint as they return to their homes in northern Gaza amid a ceasefire, near Gaza City on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Hamas accepted draft agreement for Gaza ceasefire and release of hostages, officials say

Supporters of Israeli hostages during a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Smoke plumes from explosions in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo: AFP

US President Joe Biden on Monday. Photo: AP

A boy looks on next to the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes. Photo: Reuters

Ceasefire in Lebanon extended amid Israeli forces’ delayed withdrawal

Israeli soldiers secure a roadblock near the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila. Photo: AFP

Emergency services evacuate people wounded by gunshots near the village of Odaisseh in southern Lebanon. Photo: AP

A man injured by Israeli fire in southern Lebanon. Photo: AFP

Israeli soldiers near Israel’s border with Lebanon, in northern Israel. Photo: Reuters

Netanyahu hopes to meet Trump in Washington as soon as next week, US officials say

Donald Trump, right, and Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington during Trump’s last presidency in 2020. The Israeli PM is expected to meet the newly elected US president at the White House as early as next week. Photo: Abaca Press / TNS

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, with Trump during his first term, at the White House in Washington in 2020. Modi is set to travel to the US next month to meet Trump. Photo: AFP

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Middle East

Israel’s PM is in Washington for talks with Trump’s administration on the second phase of a truce with Hamas, which has not been finalised


Israel’s PM is in Washington for talks with Trump’s administration on the second phase of a truce with Hamas, which has not been finalised.
