Israel announced on Thursday to send the negotiators for talks to Cairo in order to extend a first phase of an armistice, as it runs in two days to secure the publication of more hostages and at the same time delay a final deal in the future of Gaza.
The announcement occurred, after the Hamas had held four hostages, the most recently published as part of the six -week first phase of the ceasefire, which began on January 19. The conversations still have to begin in a second phase, which would ultimately lead to an end of the war.
The Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said reporters in Jerusalem that the delegation would travel to Egypt to determine whether there are similarities to negotiate an extension of the armistice.
“We said we are ready to design the framework longer to publish more hostages. If possible, we will do that.”
Reuters said two government officials that Israel wanted to extend the initial phase, with Hamas freed three hostages from the exchange for the Palestinians held by Israel per week.
The warfare pages did not show what would happen beyond Saturday if the first phase of the ceasefire expires without an agreement. Egypt and Qatar mediate with the support of the United States between Israel and Hamas.
The initial phase of the ceasefire included the handover of 33 Israeli hostages in return for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and prisoners in Israeli prisons. The fights were stopped and Israeli troops withdrew from some positions in Gaza.
Less than half of the remaining hostages that are assumed that they are alive
The discussions about the second phase, which should ensure the publication of the remaining hostages and the complete withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Gaza, should begin at the beginning of this month.
The government of Israel looks like the public pressure to adhere to the ceasefire to free the remaining hostages, while some want to return to war within the right government to fulfill their goal of eradding Hamas.
Israel said that three of the four hostages, whose corpses had been overnight overnight, were murdered in captivity, and the fourth was killed on the day on which they were captured during the attack that was triggered by Hamas.
Israeli and Hamas officials say that the latest discussion about the exchange of prisoners and hostages has been solved by Egyptian mediators. The Gaza ceasefire contract was resolved on the same day as the funeral of the Young Bibas family after the handover of its bodies last week.
The bad condition of the hostages that were handed over in the past few weeks, including some that were emaciated, and others Israel that they were murdered by their kidnappers, including a baby, have intensified the public anger and may have had an impact on the conversations to extend the ceasefire.
Hamas said on Thursday that it was ready to start talks in the second phase and that the only way to remain the hostages in Gaza would be freed, the obligation for the ceasefire.
The Israeli authorities believe that fewer than half of the 59 hostages in Gaza are still alive.
Israeli troops ordered to stay in the strategic corridor
The Israeli Minister of Energy Eli Cohen told Kan public broadcasters that Israel demanded that the military stay in the Philadelphi corridor, who runs the length of the southern border of Gazas with Egypt, run.
Israeli troops are to retire from the Gazaa-Egypt border area on Saturday, when the first phase of the ceasefire is to end.
Cohen said Israel was in a stronger position to negotiate now than on the evening before the ceasefire because it fully supports President Donald Trump’s US administration, which sent heavy bombs this month.
The last four hostages in the first phase of the deal were handed over for 643 Palestinians, who were either detained by Israeli armed forces in Gaza or were detained in Israel. The corpses were returned to Gaza in front of the masses without a public representation of the coffins after such displays had annoyed Israel.
President Isaac Herzog confirmed in one post that the corpses of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Manzur were all kidnapped on October 7, 2023 during the attack by Kibbutz near Gaza.
According to Israel, Hamas took 251 hostages and killed around 1,200 people in the southern Israeli communities in its raid in the southern Israeli communities. Around half of the hostages were liberated in November 2023 during the only earlier ceasefire of the war, and others were living or dead during the war.
The Palestinian authorities say that more than 48,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza. The war assigned the crowded coastal slave and replaced the majority of its population several times.
In the meantime, the Israeli police in northern Israel said that a driver allegedly rammed his car to people at a bus stop in Highway and wounded at least eight in a militant attack on Thursday.
The police said they had “neutralized” the suspect, which they described as a 53-year-old Palestinian from northern West Bank, who lived in Israel and was married to an Israeli citizen.
Medical workers said that the ramming injured at least eight people, two in a serious state, who evacuated them in the hospital.
