Israel First phase of Gaza ceasefire expires
The first phase of the painstakingly negotiated ceasefire in the Gaza Strip expires today. What happens next depends on further negotiations.
01.03.2025, 05:05
SDA
According to Israeli media reports, these are to continue today at the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. "The ceasefire and the agreement on the release of the hostages must hold. The coming days are critical," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. "The parties must spare no effort to prevent this deal from failing," said Guterres according to a UN statement in New York.
The agreement between Israel and the Islamist Hamas stipulates that the ceasefire can continue as long as talks on the next phase are held. As arduous as the negotiations on the first phase were, the next steps are likely to be even more difficult. As the German Press Agency has learned from Hamas circles, the Islamist organization does not intend to agree to the extension of the first phase. It insists on continuing with the second phase of the agreement.
Will the fighting break out again?
In this second phase, the war is to be declared over. "That's not going to happen - ever", the US television station CNN quoted an Israeli source as saying. According to media reports, Israel wants to extend the first phase by 42 days. Accordingly, Israel could try to achieve an additional exchange of live or dead Israeli hostages for more Palestinian prisoners - and then leave everything in limbo. "They will keep it as vague as possible," the Israeli source told CNN.
The far-right coalition partners of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are calling for the war to continue until Hamas is completely destroyed. According to media reports, Netanyahu consulted with ministers and defense officials late in the evening on how to proceed. His negotiating team had previously returned from Cairo after indirect talks with the mediators Qatar, Egypt and the USA. However, the negotiations are reportedly set to continue today.
Negotiations to continue
If progress is made in the negotiations and they are nearing an agreement, US special envoy Steve Witkoff could possibly travel to the region as early as this Sunday to try to finalize the negotiations, according to US news site Axios. Witkoff told CNN that he hopes to secure an extension of the first phase in order to negotiate the second phase of the agreement.
Guterres travels to Cairo
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Guterres announced that he will travel to Cairo next week for a special Arab League summit to discuss the reconstruction of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. Tuesday's summit in the Egyptian capital will provide an opportunity for leaders from across the Arab world to "come together and discuss the elements needed to build peace and stability", Guterres said, according to the UN statement.
The talks on the second phase of the ceasefire that has been in place in Gaza since January 19 should have started at the beginning of February. The deal provides for the remaining living hostages to be released in exchange for further Palestinian prisoners. Israeli troops are to withdraw from Gaza and the war is to end permanently.
Israel's armed forces were actually supposed to begin their gradual withdrawal from a corridor along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt today and complete it around a week later. However, Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz has already made it clear that the soldiers will remain stationed in the so-called Philadelphi Corridor. Israel wants to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons back into Gaza through tunnels under the border.
Ramadan begins
Meanwhile, the Islamist organization called on its supporters to show a strong presence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during the month of Ramadan, which begins today. The mosque is an important Islamic shrine and the central symbol of the Hamas-led fight against the state of Israel and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The massacre of October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were murdered in Israel and more than 250 others were deported to the Gaza Strip, is referred to by Hamas as the "Al-Aksa Flood". The mosque is located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the Jewish temple once stood in ancient times. The remains of the temple, known as the Wailing Wall, are considered the holiest place in Judaism. Ramadan is considered to be particularly prone to heightened tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Jerusalem.
