Ceasefire deal up in air as Netanyahu heads to US

The Israeli PM will begin talks on a second phase to the Gaza ceasefire in Washington on Monday, but Israel is set to miss a key deadline to start the next stage of talks with Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters before he gets on a plane to Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin talks on a second phase to the Gaza ceasefire in Washington on Monday (local time), but Israel is set to miss a key deadline to start the next stage of talks with Hamas.

Mr Netanyahu spoke with the US President’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Sunday and agreed negotiations would “begin when they meet in Washington”, the Prime Minister’s office said. The Israeli leader is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday.

A date for formal talks involving mediators and delegations from Hamas and Israel has not been set, with the 42-day first phase due to end next month.

Before boarding his flight for Washington, Mr Netanyahu said his meetings in Washington “will deal with important, critical issues facing Israel and the region — victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages, and dealing with the Iranian terror axis in all its components, an axis that threatens the peace of Israel, the Middle East, and the entire world.”

He told reporters the fact that he is the first foreign leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House is “a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It’s also a testimony to the strength of our personal friendship.”

Mr Netanyahu’s office said Mr Witkoff would talk to Qatar and Egypt, key mediators, before discussing with the Israeli Premier “steps to advance the negoti­ations, including dates for dele­gations to leave for talks”.

Under terms of the ceasefire and hostage deal, negotiations for the second phase of the deal must begin no later than the 16th day of the first phase, which is Monday. However, The Times of Israel reported on Sunday that Mr Netanyahu would not send a team of negotiators to Qatar until after his Tuesday meeting with Mr Trump, which would appear to violate the terms of the deal.

Mr Netanyahu cancelled a planned meeting on Saturday night with Mossad chief David Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, hostage point man Nitzan Alon and senior negotiators, sending military secretary Roman Gofman to tell them he had decided not to send the team to Qatar for now, Walla news outlet reported.

On Saturday, Israel’s Channel 13 said Mr Netanyahu had a meeting on Friday in which the possibility of resuming the war in Gaza was discussed. The report quoted senior Israeli officials who said he had asked the Israeli Defence Forces to present operational plans for a resumption of the war.

Arabic news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Saturday reported that Hamas had been informed by mediators that the second phase of negotiations would commence in Doha on Monday. Hamas reportedly told mediators it was ready to engage in the second phase.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israel was creating obstacles in the negotiations in the form of “evasion, procrastination, and obstruction of implementation of what was agreed upon”.

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed also reported that Egyptian and Qatari mediators had sent a message to the Israeli government regarding “its approach to dealing with the ceasefire agreement and its deliberate obstruction of it”.

The second phase is expected to cover release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war, something some members of the Netanyahu government oppose.

As part of the first phase, Hamas on Saturday freed three Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 180 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli custody.

Hostages Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas were paraded on stage by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis. US-Israeli Keith Siegel was freed in a similar ceremony at Gaza City’s port in the north.

The Israeli military later confirmed all three were back in Israel. Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum hailed their release as “a ray of light in the darkness”.

Later that day, a bus with released Palestinian prisoners was greeted by a cheering crowd in the West Bank city of Ramallah; three other buses were met by hundreds of well-wishers in Khan Yunis.

With AFP