Gaza ceasefire talks have made no progress on second phase, Hamas says
The latest round of talks on the second phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has made no progress so far, and it was unclear whether they would resume on Saturday, a senior Hamas official has said.
The ceasefire took effect on 19 January after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country's history.
During the initial six-week phase of the ceasefire, 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.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had sent a delegation to Cairo, and Egypt, which is mediating, said 'intensive talks' on the second phase had begun, with delegations from Israel and Egypt's fellow mediators Qatar and the US.
But by early on 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 told Agence-France Presse.
A Palestinian source close to the talks told AFP that, despite the absence of a Hamas delegation in Cairo, discussions were under way to find a way through the impasse.
Max Rodenbeck, of the International Crisis Group thinktank, said the second phase could not be expected to start immediately. 'But I think the ceasefire probably won't collapse also,' he added.
The preferred Israeli scenario is to free more hostages under an extension of the first phase, rather than a second phase, the 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.
The UN secretary general, António 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 more aid to flow into the Gaza Strip, where more than 69% of buildings were damaged or destroyed, almost the entire population was displaced, and widespread hunger occurred because of the war, according to the UN.
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 Jabaliya camp in north Gaza. 'My eight children and I are homeless, we're living on the streets of Jabaliya camp, with nothing but God's mercy.'
The Gaza war began with Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP 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 in effect 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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