Netanyahu on US visit as Hamas says it is ready to negotiate phase two of ceasefire – Middle East crisis live
Hamas officials ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
Hamas is ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase of the ongoing truce in Gaza, two officials from the Palestinian militant group told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
“Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said on condition of anonymity. “We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiation,” said another.
Hamas, has quickly reasserted its control over Gaza since the ceasefire took hold last month, has said it will not release the hostages slated to go free in the second phase without an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Trump’s repeated demand that Egypt and Jordan absorb 1.5 million Gaza residents – a demand forcefully denounced as ethnic cleansing by the two countries and other Arab nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have already complicated negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire.
Key events
A car bomb killed at least 15 people in the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Monday
The attack is the second there in three days; Syria’s deadliest since Bashar al-Assad was unseated from power in December 2024.
No one has claimed responsibility for the car bombing in the relatively small city, located 30km (19 miles) from the Turkish border.
The civil defence rescue service say among the dead are 14 women and one man, adding that another 15 women were wounded.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) condemned the car bombing, accusing Turkey-backed factions of using such bombings and violence to intimidate local residents.
The victims were agricultural workers and the death toll was likely to rise, a civil defence official told Reuters.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu saved Hamas by declining to advance an alternate government for the Gaza Strip, leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan says via The Times of Israel.
Speaking with reporters ahead of The Democrats’ weekly meeting in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Golan argues that Hamas’ “recovery in Gaza is a direct result of Netanyahu’s continued policy of neglecting security.”
His refusal to introduce a governing alternative to Hamas in Gaza stemmed from his preference for Smotrich and Ben Gvir in the coalition over the safety of the hostages and soldiers, thereby allowing Hamas to continue to control the Strip and restore its status. I want to be clear: The IDF severely damaged Hamas, but Netanyahu, who did not care about an alternative government, saved it. Hamas needs to be eliminated – not saved.
Victory over Hamas will not be achieved solely through military force – it requires a complementary, determined and strategic move in the regional arena. As long as Hamas remains the sole governmental address in Gaza, any achievement on the battlefield will be temporary, and a future military campaign is only a matter of time.
Hamas officials ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
Hamas is ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase of the ongoing truce in Gaza, two officials from the Palestinian militant group told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
“Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said on condition of anonymity. “We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiation,” said another.
Hamas, has quickly reasserted its control over Gaza since the ceasefire took hold last month, has said it will not release the hostages slated to go free in the second phase without an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Trump’s repeated demand that Egypt and Jordan absorb 1.5 million Gaza residents – a demand forcefully denounced as ethnic cleansing by the two countries and other Arab nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have already complicated negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire.
Hamas officials say ’ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
More to follow…
Gaza must be demilitarised before it is rebuilt, says Former IDF chief
The Gaza Strip must be demilitarised before it is rebuilt, says former deputy prime minister and IDF chief Benny Gantz.
“The transition to phase two of the hostage deal must include the replacement of the Hamas regime and the demilitarization of Gaza,” the former war cabinet minister tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“The reconstruction efforts in Gaza must be conditioned on the replacement of the Hamas regime. Either Gaza will be demilitarized – or it will remain demolished. That must be the condition for reconstruction, in coordination with the United States and the world.”
Gantz insists that Israel must ensure that Hamas is not able to access humanitarian aid meant for Gazan civilians and argues that “even after the Hamas regime is replaced, it will remain the strongest military force in Gaza – we must not allow for that to happen.”
“Once it is replaced and is cut off from its financial sources, we must hunt every Hamas terrorist in every last tunnel and hideout,” he argues.
He adds that it is now also time “to dismantle the Iranian nuclear project.”
Qatar, a key mediator in the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel which came into effect late last month, has launched an air bridge from Jordan to al-Qarara in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis to bring vital medical supplies into the territory.
In a statement, Qatar’s foreign ministry said the bridge will help to ease the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza and help with the “medical needs” of the population.
The ministry added in the post on X that since the beginning of the truce (on 19 January – the day before Trump’s inauguration) Qatar has sent 65 relief trucks through the Jordanian border.
Here are some fuller quotes from the presidency of the Palestinian Authority condemning the Israeli military’s deadly raids across the occupied West Bank (see post at 11.39 where we mentioned that the office of Palestinian president Mahmud denounced the raids as “ethnic cleansing”).
In a statement, spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said:
These aggressive policies carried out by the occupation forces in the West Bank have led to the death of 29 citizens, hundreds of wounded and detainees, in addition to the destruction of entire residential blocks in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps, the displacement of thousands of citizens, and massive destruction of infrastructure.
He called on the Trump administration to intervene “before it is too late to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression, which will lead to an uncontrollable escalation, with consequences that everyone will bear”.
‘Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed,’ says charity’s secretary-general
The head of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, says Israel must be held accountable for the “genocide” that has been “committed,” adding that the current ceasefire must not mean that we forget what happened over the last 15 months.
“In fact, if you have any sense of the future, you need a reckoning for the past. Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed, and accountability must be delivered for it,” the secretary-general told Al Jazeera.
“Regarding the few states that refuse to acknowledge the evidence, it is clearly a position that is political, it is not a legal or empirical position.”
Callamard said Amnesty is paying close attention to the events unfolding in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out raids every day for the last fortnight.
What we do know and what we have investigated in the past, demonstrate a multiplication of violations, including of the responsibility of Israel as the occupier. Let’s recall that Israel is unlawfully occupying the West Bank, and it has a responsibility under international law as a military occupier and clearly, every one of those responsibilities are being violated right now,” she said.
Are we looking at war crimes? It will demand a number of analyses that we have not conducted yet. But there is absolutely no doubt that human rights violations are being committed, including the unlawful destruction of Palestinian property, and unlawful detention, and forced displacement. Will that amount to committing genocide? It will take more time to reach that conclusion.
Despite the ceasefire agreement, the future of Palestinian refugees in Egypt remains uncertain.
Some are determined to return to what’s left of their homes as soon as they have the chance: “There is nothing better than one’s country and land,” Hussien Farahat, a father of two, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, others are inert, not knowing what to do or what will become of them, as they fear they may not have a home to go back to after Israel’s campaign of destruction, but they know they can’t stay where they are.
“Even if the war were over, we still do not know our fate and nobody mentioned those stranded in Cairo. Are we going back, or what will happen to us? And if we go back, what will happen to us? Our houses are gone,” said Abeer Kamal, who has lived in Cairo since November 2023 and sells handmade bags with her sisters.
“There is nothing, not my house, or my family, or siblings, nothing,” she said.
Thousands of Palestinians reject the prospect of a mass displacement proposed by President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
A lot of people are torn, and I am one of them,” said Shorouk, who earns a living selling Palestinian food in Cairo, going by the name Gaza Girl.
Do you choose to go back and sit in the destruction and a place that still needs to be reconstructed or stay and go back when it is reconstructed?
We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza. If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost.”
Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Gaza and relocate millions of Palestinians to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan has been comprehensively denounced across the Middle East as ethnic cleansing.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said. Asked if it would a temporary or long-term solution, he said: “Could be either”.
One hundred thousand Palestinians are sheltering in Egypt, and many say they do not know how or when they can go home. However, the majority of the 2.3 million Palestinians made homeless remain in temporary shelters within Gaza’s borders.
