With a delay of more than twenty days, an Israeli delegation and another of Hamas have traveled to the Egyptian capital to negotiate on the second phase of the high fire agreement that has allowed the war in Gaza in the last six weeks. To counterreloj, before the first phase of the agreement expires this Sunday, the mediators – egipto and Qatar, with the support of the United States – will try to continue the two parties with the truce, the first long duration after 15 months of Israeli offensive that has cost the lives of more than 48,000 Palestinians.
The negotiations should have started in early February, as stipulated in the agreement that was sealed in January after several months of comings and goings, and rifirrafes between Israel and the Islamist group. On Thursday, the two enemies and mediators began “intense discussions about the subsequent phases of the truce agreement, amid the ongoing efforts to guarantee the implementation of the agreed understandings,” Egypt reported, which in this case hosts the conversations.
It is not an easy task for mediators to get an agreement in about 48 hours, if during the month of February the two parties have not had the will to sit down to negotiate – indirectly, since the Israeli representatives and those of Hamas never see the faces. Even the Vice Minister of Israeli exterior, Sharren Haskel, considered Tuesday that it is “unrealistic” to be able to achieve an understanding in a few days. “It’s something to talk about in depth. He will take his time, ”journalists in Jerusalem told.
For his part, Hamas asked the mediators and the international community to “press the Zionist occupation to fully commit to their role in the agreement and between the second phase of the same.”
The objective of Israel in the negotiations of Cairo is to achieve an agreement to extend the first phase of the Alto El Fuego another six weeks, according to two Egyptian security sources cited by the Reuters news agency. The Government of Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu has several times that he does not want to complete all the phases of the agreement, because that would entail the total withdrawal of the Israeli army of Gaza.
One of the pitfalls in the passage of the first to the second phase is the withdrawal of the Israeli troops of the Philadelphia corridor, an area of 14 kilometers in length on the border between Gaza and Egypt, where Rafah’s border crossing is located, the only one that connects the Palestinian enclave with another country that is not Israel. The Israeli army took the control of the Palestinian side of Rafah in May 2024, thus completing the absolute blockage over Gaza, by land, sea and air.
Extension of the truce or collapse?
According to the statements of members of the Israeli government and information from the local media, the Executive wants to prolong the first phase and continue the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, following the same mechanism as in the past six weeks, until the release of all hostages with life – and without having to completely retire from Gaza or compromise a high fire.
In the first phase, Hamas gave Israel in a staggered way of a total of 33 hostages (eight of them, deceased) in exchange for the release of about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The last exchange took place at night between Wednesday and Thursday of this week, after numerous osbáculos and crossed threats between the two parties.
Some 60 hostages remain captive in Gaza (although about half could be dead) and, according to the agreement reached in January, they should be released throughout the second phase of the high fire. However, the details for their release have to be negotiated and sources of Hamas have pointed to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz That the Palestinian movement does not consider it favorable to extend the first phase and deliver to the hostages, until there is a commitment from Israel that the offensive against the strip will not resume.
According to these sources, there are other commitments that “could generate advances”, such as exchanging sick and dead hostages by Palestinian prisoners or improving the conditions of those prisoners in Israel prisons and increasing the flow of humanitarian aid and the goods that reach the strip, specifically, heavy machinery for the de -fame. The entrance of excavators, as well as prefabricated houses, was one of the points of the agreement included in the first phase, but Hamas denounces that it has not been fulfilled by Israeli impediments. Dozens of vehicles have been on the Egyptian side of the border for many days waiting for the approval of Israel, as shown by the media of the Arab country.
The Egyptian government, in addition to mediator, is an important donor and is directly involved in the conflict because it shares the border with Gaza and Israel, and its Arab power status is played in these delicate negotiations. Therefore, Cairo has summoned a summit of Arab leaders on March 4 to design a joint plan for postwar day in the strip.
Egypt has also welcomed numerous patients and injured who have been evacuated from Gaza during the high fire, or has facilitated their exit and transfer to other countries that have welcomed them to treat them. Since February 1, more than 850 patients have been evacuated, according to UN data.
A RAMADAN WITHOUT WAR
The truce expires coinciding with the beginning of the Sacred Muslim month of Ramadán and the increase in the tensions that always occurs in these dates around the esplanade of the mosques, located in the occupied part of Jerusalem and of great importance both for the Palestinian faithful and for Muslims around the world.
Israeli authorities have reinforced security in accesses to Jerusalem, in East Jerusalem and, specifically, in the old city (where the esplanade is located), with the deployment of 3,000 additional agents. Each Ramadan usually restricts the number and age of the faithful who can access the sacred enclosure, which has a place for hundreds of thousands of people. The prohibition of praying in the Al Aqsa Mosque is seen by the Palestinians as a collective punishment.
According to Israeli media, the authorities are especially on alert after dozens of “terrorists” of East Jerusalem and surroundings, within the framework of the Israeli hostage exchange agreement for Palestinian prisoners. Among the prisoners that have been released in the past weeks, there are some who served perpetual sentence for attacks against Israelis.
“There will be no restrictions, except for security, because there are hundreds of thousands of people who will come to Jerusalem to pray during this sacred month,” Israeli government spokesman for the international press for the international press, David Mence, cited by the EFE agency.
For its part, Hamas has asked that Israel’s restrictions will be respected on the esplanade of the mosques. “I call a great crowd to the Al Aqsa Mosque during the sacred month of Ramadan and to break the restrictions of the Zionist occupation and its military measures in the occupied city of Jerusalem,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the population of Gaza has started this Friday night in Ramadan’s month with relative calm. Despite the shortage and that even the mosques to pray are demolished, the Gazatis can celebrate this feast without bombing, unlike the previous year. In the midst of the rubble, they have placed some traditional ornaments of Ramadan, after the war has destroyed more than two thirds of the buildings of the strip and shattered the basic infrastructure. According to the latest report prepared by the World Bank, the European Union and the UN, more than 50,000 million euros will be necessary in the next decade to rebuild the coastal enclave.
Source: www.eldiario.es
