Israel says it’s unclear if there is ‘common ground to negotiate.’
Talks have begun in Egypt for the second phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza, with the first phase set to end on Saturday.
Officials from Israel, along with mediators from Qatar and the United States, arrived in Cairo on Thursday for “intensive discussions,” according to Egypt’s state information service.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, may also join the talks.
The second phase of the ceasefire negotiations aims to secure a complete end to the war, including the return of all remaining living captives in Gaza and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory.
Israel reports that 59 captives remain in Gaza, with 24 believed to be still alive.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar stated that the government is uncertain about the prospects of reaching a deal, noting that the Israeli team in Cairo would need to “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,” Sa’ar said at a news conference on Thursday. “If it is possible, we’ll do that.”
It remains to be seen whether a deal can be reached, given the declared war objectives of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, with US President Donald Trump’s backing, has pledged to eliminate Hamas.
“Israel has been telling us for months now, through words and actions, that it doesn’t actually intend to end the war,” Mohamad Elmasry, a political analyst at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.
“Unless Hamas leaves Gaza, which is not going to happen, Israel is fully intent, I think, on going back to war.”
Hamas says Israel ‘planning to escalate again’
The negotiations follow Hamas’s handover of the remains of four captives overnight on Thursday, in exchange for the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, as part of the last planned swap in the first phase of the ceasefire.
Israel had delayed the release of 46 prisoners, all women and children, due to delays in verifying the bodies of four captives it received.
Further violating the terms of the deal, Israeli officials stated they would not withdraw as planned from the Philadelphi Corridor—the long strip of land bordering Egypt. Israel’s military was supposed to begin pulling out of the corridor on Saturday and complete the withdrawal within eight days.
Hamas official Basem Naim told Al Jazeera he believes Israel is “planning to escalate again” despite Hamas being “committed to the deal.”
“We have already fulfilled our obligations under the deal, and we are ready to continue implementing it,” said Naim, adding that the group should be actively involved in phase two negotiations.
The ceasefire, which began on January 19, halted 15 months of war that erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,100 people and took more than 200 captive.
Israel’s war in Gaza has since killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, while displacing more than 90 percent of the enclave’s population and destroying most of the Gaza Strip.
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