US mediators met Israel’s prime minister on Monday, with attention turning to the second, far more complex, phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and the immediate problem of a standoff over a group of fighters still holed up in tunnels.
The meeting between US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes a month after Washington and regional states pressed Israel and Hamas to a truce after two years of devastating war.
However, any progress in Trump’s ceasefire plan will not only require both sides to agree on issues that have foiled previous peacemaking efforts, but also to resolve the immediate stalemate over the trapped Hamas fighters.
Meanwhile, a deadly incident shook the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Monday, as the Israeli military said its troops had killed two Palestinians who posed a threat.
The civil defence in the coastal region reported the two deaths in an Israeli attack near the southern city of Khan Yunis, including that of a minor.
There have been similar incidents in recent weeks. According to Gaza’s health authority, more than 240 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began.
More than 69,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the Gaza war, which began in October 2023, although the number cannot be independently verified.
US envoy Steve Witkoff last week described efforts to resolve the standoff by giving the fighters safe passage back into Gaza areas in return for disarming as a test case for future steps in the wider ceasefire plan.
A Hamas official said talks on the issue were continuing. Hamas was keen to resolve the dispute and “remove any pretext Israel could use to undermine the ceasefire agreement”, he said, but added that Hamas rejected the fighters’ surrendering.
Another Palestinian source said mediators had stepped up their efforts to resolve the dispute, believing any armed attempt to force their surrender could risk the entire ceasefire.
The United Arab Emirates does not yet see a clear framework for the force and, under current circumstances, would not take part, a senior Emirati official said on Monday.
On Sunday, Hamas returned the body of an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza more than a decade ago. That leaves the bodies of four captives taken at the outbreak of the most recent war still in the Palestinian territory, although it is unclear whether they can be retrieved.
Hamas was supposed to hand over all 28 bodies of captives remaining in Gaza but Israeli officials have acknowledged that it will be a challenge for the group to access around three of them. An international taskforce will help, according to the truce plan.
Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of breaching the October truce deal, with Israel saying Hamas was stalling over returning remains of captives and Hamas saying Israel continued to obstruct aid deliveries. — Reuters
