Location at a glance: Mediator wrestling for continuation of the ceasefire in Gaza

The brittle ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Islamist Hamas has reached a critical point. After the Hamas has fulfilled its commitments for the first phase of the ceasefire with the handover of the last four dead hostages, the intermediaries are now struggling to continue the fire break. Representatives from Israel, Qatar and the United States had conducted intensive negotiations in Cairo about the next steps in the ceasefire, said Egypt’s state information service in the evening.

The first phase officially ends at the weekend. However, the weapons should also be silent in accordance with the previous agreements as long as negotiations on a second phase run. Everything has to be done to ensure that the ceasefire continues, said British Prime Minister Keir Strander during his visit to US President Donald Trump. The talks on the second phase of the ceasefire that had been in effect since January 19 should have started at the beginning of February.

Talks about continuation of the ceasefire

Together with Qatar and the USA, Egypt conveys in the conflict because Israel and Hamas do not talk to each other directly. The intermediaries are currently urging the first phase of the ceasefire to extend, while more sensitive questions are to be postponed to later, the “Wall Street Journal” reported. The talks focused on arranging an additional exchange of dead or living Israeli hostages against other Palestinian prisoners. However, no agreements have been reached.

Israel and Hamas fulfill obligations from the first phase

Hamas handed 33 hostages, including eight deaths. In doing so, she has fulfilled the agreements for the first phase of the ceasefire. After the identification of the last four dead, Israel left more than 600 other Palestinian prisoners, including women and minors. Israel had initially delayed the release of trouble about the degrading productions in Hamas’ hostages.

Hamas then handed over the last four corpses to Thursday night without a ceremony. In the first phase, Israel released a total of 1,777 Palestinian prisoners. 1,904 were planned. However, some refused, for example because they had been brought abroad because of the severity of their crimes according to the agreement.

Israel wants to leave troops in parts of the Gaza Strip

Now there are 59 deported Israelis in the sealed -down Gaza Strip, although only 27 are alive. The living should be released in a second phase. Israel’s troops are to be removed from the coastal area and the war ended permanently. But the right -wing extremist coalition partners of the Israeli head of government Benjamin Netanyahu reject this. They demand that Hamas are completely destroyed.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz already made it clear that the soldiers are not deducted from the Philadelphi corridor along the border of the Gaza Strip to Egypt. This should make Hamas impossible to smuggle weapons through tunnels under the border. It was actually agreed that Israel began the gradual troop deduction from the corridor at the weekend. The refusal could endanger the ceasefire and return the remaining hostages.

What’s next?

The Hamas confirmed that she would only release the remaining hostages if Israel adheres to the agreements and talks about the second phase of the ceasefire. A third phase provides for a reconstruction of the largely destroyed Gaza Strip and an alternative government without the participation of Hamas. However, it is uncertain how things will go on for the time being.

The government in Jerusalem did not say what the Israeli representatives should negotiate in the talks in Cairo and what attorney they had. According to unconfirmed Israeli media reports, the Israeli government could first strive for an extension of the first phase of the agreement and demand the release of further hostages.

The trigger of the Gaza War was the massacre of October 7, 2023, which was arranged by Hamas terrorists and other Islamists in Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others were dragged into the Gaza strip. Since then, according to the health authority controlled by the Hamas, more than 48,300 people have been killed in Gaza. The numbers do not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Israel’s army: Hamas intentions misjudged for years

Meanwhile, Israel’s army reported an internal examination of her failures before and during the terrorist attack. The military assumed that Hamas was not interested in a large -scale war and did not prepare for such a preparation, Israeli media summarized the results. Despite warning signals, intelligence material had been misinterpreted for years. The army assumed that the border fence to Israel was insurmountable. At the beginning of the robbery, only 767 soldiers were stationed on the Israeli side of the Gaza border.

Israeli media criticized the fact that the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu blocked the establishment of an independent state commission to investigate the robbery. Critics accuse Netanyahu of taking no personal responsibility for the political and military failure during the massacre and clinging to power.

Strander: two-state solution after the Gaza War only way

At the meeting with Trump, the Strander described a two -state solution as the only way “for a permanent peace” after the end of the war. In contrast to Trump’s earlier statements, the British Prime Minister said that the Palestinians had to make the return and reconstruction of their lives possible. “We all have to support them,” said Starmer.

A few weeks ago, Trump had proposed to “move” around two million Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip to other Arab states and to transform the destroyed coastal area into an economically flourishing “Riviera of the Middle East”. Internationally, these statements met with violent criticism. According to experts, a forced relocation would violate international law.