Diplomatic correspondent
ReutersWhere is the next? The first six-week phase of the Gaza ceasefire ends on Saturday.
For the 42 days starting January 19th, we have seen a significant proportion of uncertainty, hope, sadness and anger, and it should have happened at that time.
The Israelite hostages – the living and the dead – have been released. The Palestinian prisoners were released.
However, negotiations in Phase 2 have hardly begun, including the release of all remaining living hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Meetings were held in Cairo on Friday, but the Israeli delegation returned home in the evening.
The report suggests that negotiations will continue “away” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have late-night discussions with the delegation, senior minister and chief of intelligence reports.
This kind of meeting, which took place late on the Sabbath, was very unusual. However, no details were made available on Saturday morning.
It appears Israel is trying to extend the six-week phase, regain more hostages and evacuate more Palestinian prisoners.
The government here asserts that Hamas, the group responsible for the October 7, 2023 massacre and 251 hostage-taking group, must abandon all forms of authority in the Gaza Strip.
Israel also says it is not yet ready to leave the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egyptian-Gaza border. This is the process that should have started on Saturday.
In a statement sent to reporters on Friday, an unnamed Israeli official said:
Such anonymous quotes are often thought to come directly from the prime minister’s office.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza were shaken last summer when Netanyahu insisted on maintaining Israeli forces stationed along Philadelphi Coridor.
On Friday night, Hamas said he would not agree to an extension of Phase 1 without assurance from US, Qatar and Egyptian mediators that Phase 2 would eventually take place.
Hamas appears to be determined to remain a Gaza force, even if he is willing to hand over his daily governance to other Palestinian actors, including Palestinian authority based in the West Bank.
Egypt is working on a reconstruction plan for Gaza as an alternative to a proposal by Donald Trump to take over the area and evacuate all civilians.
However, Western diplomats are not optimistic that the plans announced at the Arab League’s summit in Cairo next Tuesday have the robust security and governance arrangements needed to meet Israel’s demands.
This is an important moment.
Getty ImagesFor all the emotional confusion of the past few weeks, Israelis have come to expect a gradual release of hostages. It is believed that 24 people are alive and are still waiting to be released, with another 39 being estimated to be dead.
The Israelis desperately want to get them all back without the propaganda display that made them all sick and angry about the whole country.
If the entire process comes to a halt, public rage in Hamas and their own government will appear. Further street protests are planned on Saturday night at the Tel Aviv location, including that all Israelis are known as hostage squares.
“We will request the return of all 59 remaining hostages by the 50th day of the contract,” reads an invitation from the Hostages and Missing Family Forum HQ.
“Now is our only window of opportunity. We won’t get another opportunity.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the parties to “not be spared from efforts to avoid the collapse of this contract.”
There is a broad belief that sooner or later, war will begin again.
It is a bleak prospect of hostages and for the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza trying to regain their lives in the fragile peace they have now.
The idea of a resumption of conflict, where families are still digging from the tile rub, sometimes bare hands, already claiming tens of thousands of lives, is cold.
The middle part of the Gaza Strip, which has fled the worst conflict so far, is likely to suffer severely from a return to war, making it even more difficult to maintain a life on this devastated land.
