Hamas pressure Israel for next Gaza truce phase
Hamas called on Friday for international pressure on Israel to enter the next phase of a ceasefire that has largely halted the war in Gaza, as negotiations were resuming in Cairo. With hours to go before the first phase of the truce is due to expire, mediator Egypt said on Thursday that Israeli, Qatari and US delegations were in the capital Cairo for "intensive" talks on a second phase that should bring a permanent end to the war.
In Israel, a day after the military acknowledged its "complete failure" to prevent the 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war, mourners gathered for the funeral of Tsachi Idan, a hostage whose remains have been returned from Gaza.
Hamas said in a statement that "with the end of the first phase of the ceasefire", the group "affirms its full commitment to implementing all the provisions of the agreement in all its stages and details".
"We call on the international community to pressure the Zionist occupation (Israel) to... immediately enter the second phase of the agreement without any delay," it said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday "instructed the negotiation delegation to depart for Cairo", his office said shortly after Hamas handed over the remains of Idan and three other hostages under the truce, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.
The ceasefire, reached following months of gruelling negotiations, has largely halted the war that erupted with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Fighters broke through Gaza's security barrier that day, launching a deadly attack on residential communities, army bases and other sites, and seizing dozens of hostages.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and to bring home all the hostages after the attack that 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, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN has deemed reliable.
An internal Israeli army probe into the October 7 attack, released, acknowledged the military's "complete failure" to prevent it, according to a military official who briefed reporters about the report's contents on condition of anonymity.
"Too many civilians died that day" in Israel when the military failed to protect them, the official said.
A senior military official said at the same briefing that the military acknowledges it was "overconfident" and had misconceptions about Hamas's military capabilities before the attack.
Following the scathing probe's release, Israel's military chief General Herzi Halevi said: "The responsibility is mine." Halevi had already resigned last month citing the October 7 "failure".
On Friday, a crowd gathered at a football stadium in Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv to bid a final farewell to former hostages Idan, 49, waving flags and holding scarves of the local team he supported.
After his body was repatriated, Israeli authorities said that he was "murdered while held hostage in Gaza". Israel Berman, a businessman who lived in the Nahal Oz kibbutz community where Idan was abducted, has said that "until the very last moment, we were hoping that Tsachi would return to us alive". - AFP
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