Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace stated Thursday that he had instructed his nation’s negotiators to journey to Cairo “for the continuation of the talks” geared toward preserving the tenuous ceasefire settlement with Hamas alive. The announcement got here hours after 4 Israeli hostages’ remains were returned by Hamas as a part of the ultimate hostage-prisoner trade of part one of many deal.
The truth that the Israeli chief was sending his crew to Cairo would deliver hope, however there was nonetheless deep uncertainty over the way forward for the ceasefire deal two days earlier than its first six-week part ends.
The our bodies handed over by Hamas on Thursday have been the final of the 33 hostages to be returned to Israel throughout part one of many ceasefire. Israel launched about 600 extra Palestinian prisoners Thursday in trade. The freed detainees, a few of whom had been serving lengthy sentences and others who have been detained through the Gaza warfare and by no means formally charged, poured out of buses within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution and in Gaza to emotional reunions with family members.
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There have been nonetheless 59 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza as of Thursday, solely 24 of whom are believed to be alive, in response to the Israeli authorities. Their destiny hinges on the way forward for the ceasefire settlement that was negotiated by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar.
The plan was for the second part of the deal to see all remaining hostages returned in trade for a everlasting ceasefire and Israel pulling its forces out of Gaza. However Netanyahu has been underneath intense stress from hardline members of his cupboard to stroll away from the truce and resume Israel’s warfare in Gaza towards Hamas, which has lengthy been designated a terrorist group by the U.S., Israel and the European Union.
Netanyahu has stated for greater than a yr that the target of the warfare in Gaza — which the Palestinian territory’s Hamas-run Well being Ministry says has killed nicely over 48,000 individuals, most of them civilians — is to destroy or a minimum of disarm Hamas. That is a purpose Israel’s devastating navy assault has not but achieved.
The Israeli prime minister can also be underneath intense stress, nonetheless, from the households of the hostages to maintain the ceasefire alive so their family members will be introduced again residence. President Trump has made it clear that he’ll again Israel, no matter Netanyahu decides to do, however his particular envoy to the Center East, Steve Witkoff is anticipated again within the area quickly to push for a second part.
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“We’ll get to stage two, or part two, and I am very targeted on that, and I believe it will occur,” Witkoff said Sunday on CBS Information’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Witkoff stated securing the discharge of the final U.S. nationwide believed to be among the many surviving hostages, Edan Alexander, who was serving with the Israel Protection Forces when he was kidnapped through the October 7 terrorist assault, was “entrance and heart for us.”
“I do know his mother and father. We discuss on a regular basis. He is important. It is one in every of President Trump’s most necessary goals is to get all Individuals residence, and we will achieve success in getting Edan residence, I consider,” Witkoff instructed Brennan.
Attending to the second part of the ceasefire settlement, and the phrases negotiated for it, can also be important for Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinian residents, the overwhelming majority of whom have been compelled to flee from their houses by the 15-month warfare, a lot of them a number of instances. Many have returned to seek out their cities and cities in ruins, and Mr. Trump’s suggestion that all of them be compelled out of the enclave — possibly without any right to return — so it may be changed into a brand new luxurious actual property improvement, has fueled anxiousness throughout the area.
Critics have condemned the thought as would-be ethnic cleaning, and America’s regional allies Egypt and Jordan, which Mr. Trump has prompt ought to take within the displaced Palestinians, have adamantly rejected the thought and, together with different Arab nations, are anticipated to current an alternative proposal to redevelop Gaza.
Witkoff instructed Brennan that whereas the extent of devastation in Gaza and the dangers posed by unexploded ordinance “recommend that no one can actually reside there in a secure setting for most likely a minimum of 15 years… I am unsure that anybody has an issue with individuals, with individuals returning. We have had these discussions round that. I simply suppose the basic difficulty at the moment is how we get part two performed, after which develop a reconstruction plan for Gaza.”
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Mr. Trump’s envoy was clear, nonetheless, that Hamas “can’t be allowed to return again into the federal government” in Gaza, saying the group that has run Gaza for nearly 20 years, “has to go. They have to depart.”
He couldn’t say the place the group’s remaining members must be despatched, nonetheless, or who or what must be introduced in to exchange them as a governing physique within the territory.
“I believe the satan is within the particulars, and we have had numerous discussions round it. I am not at liberty to have that, that particular dialogue at the moment, however we have some concepts, and that might be a part of the negotiation,” he stated.
Hamas stated after the ultimate trade of part one on Thursday that it was “prepared” to interact in negotiations on the phrases of a second part.
The information that Israeli negotiators have been headed for Cairo, with the tip of part one looming on Saturday, will provide some hope to the households of the 59 remaining Israeli hostages — together with some 2 million Palestinians in Gaza and hundreds of thousands of individuals throughout the Center East — for a continuation of diplomacy quite than a resumption of warfare.
