Hamas says talks on second phase of Gaza ceasefire deal have started
Talks on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal have started, a spokesperson for Hamas has said.
It comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets ready to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington later today.
The meeting comes at a critical juncture as the Israeli military’s deadly raids in the West Bank, particularly in Jenin, are undermining the fragile ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, according to the UN.
Netanyahu has said the existing deal is for a temporary ceasefire and that Israel has reserved “the right to return to fighting” against Hamas at a future date. We are currently in stage one of the three-part deal, which began on 19 January 2025.
The schedule is going to plan as it was hoped that sixteen days after the start of stage one, negotiations would begin on the second stage, during which time it is hoped a permanent ceasefire will be established and Israeli forces will make a complete withdrawal as remaining living hostages are freed.
Key events
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has released a photograph it said showed him preparing for his meeting later today with the US president, Donald Trump.
The photograph shows Netanyahu with his top aides, military secretary Maj Gen Roman Gofman, strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, chief of staff Tzachi Braverman and international affairs adviser, Caroline Glick.
Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, held a funeral on Tuesday for its weapons and combat services commander, Ghazi Abu Tamaa, who was killed in an Israeli strike.
Footage by Associated Press showed fighters with the group riding in vehicles, raising their rifles in tribute and playing music while carrying a poster bearing his image.
The group’s spokesperson, Abu Obeida, confirmed Abu Tamaa’s death as well as the death of senior leader, Mohammed Deif, in a video statement Thursday.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting in Washington later today comes after five Arab foreign ministers and a senior Palestinian official sent a joint letter to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, opposing Trump’s proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza.
“Reconstruction in Gaza should be through direct engagement with and participation of the people of Gaza,” stated the letter, signed by Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinians will live in their land and help rebuild it and should not be stripped of their agency during reconstruction and must take ownership of the process with the support of the international community.
The letter also warned Rubio against possible deportation of Palestinians by Israel, writing:
Palestinians do not want to leave their land. We support their position unequivocally. Such a move will add a new dangerous dimension to the conflict.
Here’s more from Trump administration officials who defended the US president’s proposal that more Palestinians in Gaza move to neighbouring countries to “just clean out” the whole strip.
US officials, previewing Donald Trump’s White House talks later today with Benjamin Netanyahu, sought to soften what was widely seen as Trump’s call for mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, Reuters reports.
They stressed that the US wants to work with its Arab partners and Israel, stopping short of explicitly reiterating Trump’s call for Jordan and Egypt to take in more Palestinians without retracting his suggestion.
Trump “is looking for solutions to help the people of Gaza have normal lives while the Gaza Strip is being rebuilt, and he is trying to look at this in a realistic way,” an official said.
Trump sees Gaza as ‘demolition site’, says US official
Donald Trump sees the Gaza Strip as a “demolition site” and believes it will take between 10 and 15 years to rebuild and it would be “inhumane” to force people to live on uninhabitable land, a Trump administration official has said.
The official, speaking before a meeting between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, said:
Trump believes that Gaza is a demolition site, he thinks it is inhumane to force people to live in an area that is not fit for habitation.
Last month, Trump described Gaza as a “massive demolition site” and proposed that large numbers of Palestinians should leave the whole strip and move to neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Egypt, either “temporarily or could be long-term”.
His comments were rejected by US allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists.
Hamas has accused Israel of delaying and obstructing the flow of aid into Gaza as talks about the second phase of the ceasefire get underway.
“What has been implemented in these aspects is much less than what was agreed on,” a statement read.
A spokesperson for the group on Tuesday said it had started “communications and negotiations” over the next phase via international mediators.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would send a delegation to Qatar to continue negotiations this weekend.
The second phase is expected to be more difficult to agree than the first.
Hamas has said it won’t release the last hostages until Israel withdraws all its troops from Gaza, a move Israel has said it won’t make until it has destroyed Hamas’ military and political capabilities.
Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has held talks in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The talks began shortly after Sharaa arrived in the Turkish capital on board an official Turkish plane, the AFP reported.
Sharaa flew in from Saudi Arabia, where he had been seeking help to finance Syria’s reconstruction and kickstart its economy following the country’s civil war.
Erdogan greeted Sharaa at the entrance of Ankara’s vast presidential palace complex.
Turkey was a strong backer of the groups that deposed former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad – including the one led by Sharaa, HTS – and is considered one of the new administration’s key allies.
It is also keen to secure Damascus’ support against the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria, which Ankara opposes over its ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group outlawed in Turkey.
Erdogan’s office said the talks would address “joint steps to be taken for economic recovery, sustainable stability and security” in Syria.
Turkey shares a 910-km (565-mile) border with Syria and by 2022 hosted 3.8 million refugees from the civil war, more than any other country.
The Israeli military says it killed 55 people during operations in the West Bank in January.
In a statement, it said those killed were “terrorists” and that among them were people involved in planned attacks on Israeli civilians.
It added that “approximately 380 wanted terrorists” had been arrested.
It said operations continued in three areas in the north of the territory, including the Jenin refugee camp.
Death toll in Gaza at 47,540, says Hamas-run health ministry
The death toll in Gaza since Israel launched its operation there after the 7 October attacks has reached 47,540, the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health has said.
It added that the estimated number of injuries now stands at 111,618.
The interim president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said his government aims to restore ties with the US but has not yet had any contact with the Trump administration.
Speaking to the Economist, Sharaa also called for US sanctions on Syria to be lifted, saying they pose the “gravest risk” to the country and its recovery from civil war.
“I believe that President Trump seeks peace in the area, and it is a top priority to lift the sanctions,” he said.
“The United States of America does not have any interest in maintaining the suffering of the Syrian people.”
The US and other Western powers imposed sanctions on the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad over his crackdown on protests that began in 2011 and his conduct of the subsequent civil war.
The toppling of Assad in December has led to calls for the sanctions to be lifted.
Last week, the European Union’s foreign ministers agreed to a “step-by-step” approach to relax some of the sanctions it has in place.
