US president Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on Wednesday focused on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.
Earlier he visited the Netzarim corridor in Gaza to see at first-hand how staff of a US security company are participating in the monitoring of Gaza war refugees returning to the northern Gaza Strip.
Mr Witkoff arrived in Israel from Saudi Arabia where he held talks on Mr Trump’s plan for a comprehensive deal in the Middle East that would include the implementation of the second stage of the ceasefire agreement, Gaza’s reconstruction and a pathway to normalisation between Israel and the Saudis.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet Mr Trump at the White House next Tuesday – he is the first foreign leader to be invited in Mr Trump’s second term. Mr Trump wrote in his invitation to Mr Netanyahu: “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbours, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”
Israel delays prisoner release following chaotic scenes at hostage handover points
Steve Witkoff visits Jerusalem to discuss next phase of Gaza ceasefire
It is an absurdity to think humanitarian aid into Gaza could be banned so soon into the ceasefire
‘If Unrwa goes down, the whole aid structure goes down’
Their meeting will be held just as the negotiations over the second stage of the agreement with Hamas are to get under way. A number of Israeli cabinet ministers said they were certain the talks about the next stage of the agreement would stall and Israel would resume fighting in Gaza. They expressed doubt that Hamas would agree to the terms that have been demanded by Israel, including the demilitarisation of Gaza, exiling Hamas’s leaders and no Hamas involvement in administering the coastal enclave in the postwar period.
If the new administration in Washington is determined to bring an end to the Gaza war then Mr Netanyahu will face a real challenge to the stability of his coalition. Religious Zionist party leader Bezalel Smotrich has said repeatedly that if Israel does not resume the war in Gaza his party will quit the coalition and will act to bring down the government and force new elections. A second far-right party, Otzma Yehudit, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, has already left Mr Netanyahu’s coalition in protest over the ceasefire.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Middle Eastern leaders on Tuesday that postwar plans for the Gaza Strip must prevent Hamas from governing and posing a threat to Israel.
The January ceasefire deal paused the war that began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 back to Gaza as hostages, according to Israel. More than 47,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s subsequent offensive, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
[ Gaza hostages: Hamas to release three Israelis and five Thais, says officialOpens in new window ]
Hamas on Wednesday night handed over to Israel the names of three Israeli hostages due to be released on Thursday, after 482 days in captivity. They include two young women, IDF spotter Agam Berger and civilian Arbel Yehoud, and an 80-year-old man, Gadi Moses, who was seized from kibbutz Nir Oz. Israel has demanded that Hamas clarify the condition of hostages Shiri Bibas and her two small boys, Ariel and Kfir. Fears for the fate of the Bibas trio have grown, as Hamas has not named them among the first hostages released.
In a surprise development, Hamas also announced that five Thai hostages would also be released on Thursday. In return, Israel is to release 110 Palestinian prisoners, including 33 who were serving life terms. A further three hostages are due to be released by Hamas on Saturday.
On Wednesday, Israel dismissed claims by Hamas officials that it had been delaying the delivery of aid to Gaza. Hamas warned that delays could affect the release of hostages under the ceasefire deal.
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