New demand by Israel risks shaky Gaza truce

CAIRO (Reuters/AFP): The fragile truce in Gaza was hanging by a thread on Friday after Israel demanded a six-week extension to the first phase of the deal.

The 42-day first stage of the ceasefire — under which Hamas released 33 Israeli hostages, more than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli jails and its forces partially withdrew from Gaza — ends on Saturday.

Talks on the second stage — the release of all remaining hostages and Israel’s complete military withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave — should have begun last month, but Egyptian security sources said on Friday that Israeli negotiators in Cairo were insisting on a further 42 days of the first stage.

Hamas opposes the extension and insists on proceeding to the second phase of the deal as originally agreed. “We call on the international community to pressure the occupation to… immediately enter the second phase of the agreement without any delay,” it said on Friday.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian also said on Friday that she would like the ceasefire phases to move ahead as originally planned. “I doubt anyone in Gaza will want to go back to war,” she said.

However, there is also no sign of consensus on Gaza’s future. That uncertainty is complicating efforts to negotiate a lasting resolution.
A hostage-prisoner swap early Thursday was the final one under the initial stage of the truce.

Hamas returned the bodies of four Israelis and 643 Palestinians were released from Israeli jails. Many were awaiting treatment on Friday at a hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Among those freed was Nael Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner who spent more than four decades behind bars. Another released prisoner, Yahya Shraideh, said: “We were in hell and we came out of hell.”