CAIRO (Dispatches) – Talks have started on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the spokesperson for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said on Tuesday.
The first phase of the ceasefire between the Zionist regime and Hamas went into force on Jan. 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli captives held by Hamas and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.
Phase two of the three-phase deal is intended to focus on agreements on the release of the remaining captives and the withdrawal of Zionist regime troops from Gaza.
“Contacts and negotiation on the second phase have begun,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said, without providing further details.
Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier on Tuesday that the occupying regime was preparing to send a high-level delegation to the Qatari capital Doha to discuss continued implementation of the deal.
Netanyahu was due to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, with the focus likely to be on the ceasefire as well as a possible normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia.
The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the U.S., has remained largely intact but prospects for a durable settlement are unclear.
The war began on Oct. 7. Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza since then has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say.
Hamas and Netanyahu’s regime, which includes hardliners who opposed the ceasefire deal, say they are committed to reaching an agreement in the second phase.
Qanoua said Israel had stalled in implementing the humanitarian protocol of the ongoing first phase, hindering the repair of hospitals, roads, water wells and infrastructure destroyed by the Zionist regime’s 15-month genocide.