(AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to begin talks Monday on a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas as he meets with the new Trump administration in Washington. Just over two weeks after the Gaza truce began, two Hamas officials said the group was ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase, which could help secure a lasting cessation of violence.
Before leaving Israel, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas,” countering Iran, and freeing all hostages when he meets President Donald Trump on Tuesday. It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritization Netanyahu said showed “the strength of the Israeli-American alliance.” With fragile ceasefires holding in both Gaza and Lebanon — where an Israeli campaign badly weakened Iran-backed Hezbollah — Israel has turned its focus to the occupied West Bank and an operation that it says is aimed at rooting out extremism that has killed dozens.
Netanyahu said Israel’s wartime decisions had reshaped the Middle East and that with Trump’s support, this could go “even further.” Trump, who has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire deal after 15 months of war, said Sunday negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were “progressing.” “Netanyahu’s coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled,” Trump said.
Netanyahu’s office said he would begin discussions with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the Gaza truce. The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and could lead to a more permanent end to the war. One Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the Palestinian group “has informed the mediators… that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase.” A second official said Hamas was “waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round.” The Washington discussions are also expected to cover normalization efforts between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which Riyadh froze early in the Gaza war.
Under the Gaza ceasefire’s first, 42-day phase, Hamas is to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Four hostage-prisoner exchanges have already taken place, and the truce has led to a surge of food, fuel, medical, and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza. During Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,498 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.
While Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden sustained Washington’s military and diplomatic backing of Israel, it also criticized the mounting death toll and aid restrictions. Trump moved quickly to reset relations. In one of his first acts back in office, he lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and reportedly approved a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the Biden administration had blocked. Trump has also repeatedly touted a plan to “clean out” Gaza, calling for Palestinians to move to neighboring countries such as Egypt or Jordan. Qatar, which jointly mediated the ceasefire along with the United States and Egypt, underscored the importance of allowing Palestinians to “return to their homes and land.” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, meanwhile, warned Monday that relocating Gazans “would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”
In the West Bank — which is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory — Israel said it had killed at least 50 militants and detained more than 100 “wanted individuals” in an operation that began on January 21. Israel’s military says the offensive is aimed to root out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, where militants have long operated. On Sunday, Palestinian official news agency WAFA said Israeli forces “simultaneously detonated about 20 buildings” in the Jenin refugee camp.
On Monday, the Palestinian presidency denounced the operation in the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and where violence has surged since the Gaza war began. In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing.” The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had killed 70 people in the West Bank since January 1. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 883 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry. At least 30 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
– Callum Paton with Leon Bruneau in Washington
© 2024 AFP
