The first phase of the Israel-Hamas truce was due to expire yesterday, but negotiations on the next stage, which should secure a permanent ceasefire, have so far been inconclusive.
The ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19 after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country’s history.
Over several weeks, 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.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The second phase of the fragile truce, which was brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt after months of grueling negotiations, should begin today, and should secure the release of dozens of hostages still in Gaza.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold a ministerial meeting with security officials, after he sent a delegation to Egypt for discussions on phase two of the truce, Israeli media reported.
“The relevant parties have begun intensive talks to discuss the next phases of the truce agreement, amid ongoing efforts to ensure the implementation of the previously agreed understandings,” the Egyptian State Information Service said on Thursday.
It also said Israeli, Qatari and US delegations were in Cairo for the talks.
By early yesterday, there was no sign of consensus, or of a presence of a Hamas delegation in the Egyptian capital.
Max Rodenbeck, of the International Crisis Group think tank, said the second phase could not be expected to start yesterday.
“But I think the ceasefire probably won’t collapse also,” he said.
The preferred scenario for Israel is to free more hostages under an extension of the first phase, rather than a second phase, Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said.
Hamas, for its part, has pushed hard for phase two to begin, after it sustained staggering losses in the devastating war.
In a statement, it said that it “affirms its full commitment to implementing all the provisions of the agreement in all its stages and details.”
The group also called for global pressure on Israel “to immediately enter the second phase of the agreement without any delay.”
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’ attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS