Israel was considering an extension of the 42-day truce in Gaza as it sought to bring home the remaining 63 hostages while putting off agreement on the future of the enclave for now, said Israeli officials.
Syria condemned on Tuesday Israel’s incursion into its territories and called for Israel to withdraw, according to the closing statement of a national dialogue summit organised by Syria’s new Islamist rulers to outline the country’s political roadmap.
An Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas Palestinian militants recounted her ordeal at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, telling the 15-member body she did not think she would make it out alive, and pleading for a ceasefire to continue.
Israel looks to extend phase one of Gaza truce
Israel was considering an extension of the 42-day truce in Gaza as it sought to bring home the remaining 63 hostages while putting off agreement on the future of the enclave for now, said Israeli officials.
The initial phase of the ceasefire deal, launched with the backing of the US and the help of Egyptian and Qatari mediators on 19 January, is due to end on Saturday and it remains unclear what will follow.
“We are being very cautious,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told reporters in Jerusalem, when asked whether the truce might be extended without the start of talks on a second phase which would include difficult issues such as an end to the war and the future governance of Gaza.
“There wasn’t a particular agreement on that, but it might be a possibility,” she said. “We didn’t close the option of continuing the current ceasefire, but in return for our hostages, and they have to be returned safely.”
If no agreement is reached by Friday, officials expect either a return to fighting or a freeze in the current situation in which the truce would continue but hostages would not return and Israel may block the entry of aid into Gaza.
Two officials who have been involved in the ceasefire process told Reuters that Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have not engaged in negotiations to finalise an agreement over phase two of the ceasefire which will have to bridge wide gaps between the two sides to be concluded.
“I think it’s unrealistic to see something like that forming within a few days,” said Haskel. “This is something that needs to be discussed in depth. This is going to take time.”
The deal, which included the release of 33 Israeli hostages in return for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some of their positions in Gaza, has survived numerous hiccups.
So far, 29 Israeli hostages — plus five Thais — have been released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with the bodies of four more hostages, initially due to be handed over on Thursday, still to come.
There is now a standoff over the release of more than 600 Palestinians, which Israel has delayed, accusing Hamas of breaching the agreement by making a public show of the handover of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Hamas official Basem Naim said progress could not be made while the prisoners were still being held but that Hamas was committed to a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Haskel said she hoped a solution would be found to secure the handover of the final four in the next few days.
Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy, is expected in Israel on Wednesday to continue discussions on the second stage, opening the way to an end to the war in Gaza.
Negotiations over the second phase, intended to secure the release of the remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, had been meant to start this month, 16 days after the start of the truce.
Qatar’s prime minister flew to Florida on 6 February and met Witkoff to discuss the “full implementation” of phase one and “to kick-start negotiations for the second phase”, according to an official briefed on the talks.
But officials in the ceasefire process say that so far none of the principal negotiators have met face to face since the first phase was agreed last month and there is little clarity on options for the “day after”.
“This is the day after Gaza, after the war in Gaza and what’s going to happen there, and so we are continuing that channel with the Americans,” said Haskel.
The fighting in Gaza was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, in which Israel said about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken as hostages back to Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, say Palestinian health officials, and laid waste to much of the enclave.
Syria calls for Israel’s withdrawal from its lands
Syria condemned on Tuesday Israel’s incursion into its territories and called for Israel to withdraw, according to the closing statement of a national dialogue summit organised by Syria’s new Islamist rulers to outline the country’s political roadmap.
Israel moved forces into a UN-monitored demilitarised zone within Syria after rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate, toppled former President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would not tolerate the presence of HTS in southern Syria, nor any other forces affiliated with the country’s new rulers, and demanded the territory be demilitarised.
At UN, Israeli former hostage appeals for ceasefire deal to continue
An Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas Palestinian militants recounted her ordeal at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, telling the 15-member body she did not think she would make it out alive, and pleading for a ceasefire to continue.
Noa Argamani was rescued by Israeli forces in June last year, eight months after she and her partner were taken by Hamas from a music festival in southern Israel. Her partner, Avinatan Or, is still held hostage and due to be released during the second phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The initial phase of the ceasefire deal, launched on 19 January, is due to end on Saturday with dozens of hostages having been released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees and convicts held by Israel.
Negotiators have not fully resolved the steps to follow in later phases. Hamas still holds dozens of hostages.
“I need to make sure that the world knows that: the deal must go on in full ... completely, in all the stages,” she told the Security Council before describing how a house she was held hostage in was blown up, trapping her in the rubble.
“I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe — I thought it’s going to be the last seconds of my life,” said Argamani, adding that she received no medical help from Hamas. “Being here with you today is a miracle.”
UN Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag, who is also the senior UN humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told the Security Council that a resumption of hostilities in the Palestinian enclave “must be avoided at all costs”.
“The trauma is undeniable on both sides,” she said. “In my last visit to Gaza, soon after the ceasefire came into effect, I was once again moved by a sense of utter devastation ... and despair due to loss, trauma and a sense of abandonment.”
Six newborns die from severe cold in Gaza
At least six newborn babies have died in Gaza due to severe cold, according to Dr Saeed Saleh, a health official at the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital (PFBS) in the enclave, in a recorded video on Tuesday.
Saleh said that in the past two weeks, eight newborns were admitted with severe cold-related injuries, six of whom later died.
The hospital highlighted the dire living conditions facing Palestinians, who are currently residing in tents and bombed-out homes, with no protection from the freezing temperatures currently sweeping across the Middle East.
Health officials at the hospital called on mediators in the conflict between Israel and Hamas to urgently provide mobile homes as temporary shelters for more than 280,000 families who are homeless after Israeli airstrikes.
They also called for fuel deliveries to ensure warmth and safeguard young children from the harsh weather conditions.
Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks go on trial in Germany
Four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin on Tuesday, in what prosecutors described as the first court case against militants of the Islamist group in Germany.
The Hamas members were detained in late 2023 on suspicion of planning attacks, German prosecutors said at the time.
“For the first time in Germany, suspects are facing charges of having participated as members of the foreign terrorist organisation Hamas,” prosecutor Jochen Weingarten told Reuters.
He added the defendants were accused of seeking to locate a secret weapons depot in Poland for possible attacks, while receiving orders from the deputy commander of the Qassam Brigades in Lebanon.
According to previous statements by prosecutors, the defendants are also accused of operating other weapons caches in Europe.
WHO worries about West Bank violence, impact on healthcare
The World Health Organization (WHO) was deeply concerned about violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the impact of “starkly rising” attacks on healthcare, said its representative in the Palestinian territories on Tuesday.
Israel sent tanks into the West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years on Sunday and ordered the military to prepare for an “extended stay” to fight Palestinian militant groups in the area’s refugee camps.
“We are deeply concerned about the situation in the West Bank and the impact on health,” Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, told reporters via video link from the Gaza Strip.
“We see the current flashpoints of violence, attacks on healthcare ... starkly rising in the West Bank.”
The WHO says there have been 44 attacks this year that affected the provision of healthcare in the West Bank, with four healthcare facilities affected.
Four patients died waiting for an ambulance and eight health workers were injured while attempting to reach patients, it said.
It also said 25 healthcare workers and patients had been killed and 121 injured in the West Bank from 7 October 2023 to 14 February this year.
The WHO also reported “severe movement restrictions” across the West Bank, including obstacles affecting the movement of ambulances and access for healthcare workers.
At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and the nearby city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank since Israel began its operation last month after reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza after 15 months of war.
Eighty-two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between January 1 and February 13, according to the latest WHO figures.
Egypt rejects proposals to displace Palestinians
Egypt rejected proposals to displace the Palestinian people in order to not “liquidate” the Palestinian cause and to avoid threatening the national security of countries in the region, said the Egyptian presidency in a statement on Tuesday.
Trump has angered the Arab world with a plan to permanently displace the population of more than two million Palestinians from Gaza, assert US control over the territory and turn it into an international beach resort.
Egypt will on 4 March host an emergency Arab League summit set to focus on Arab efforts to counter Trump’s plan and calls for Egypt and Jordan to resettle displaced Palestinians from Gaza. Both countries reject the proposal, citing national security concerns.
Arab leaders held a meeting on Friday in Riyadh attended by Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan. Sources familiar with the discussions said they tackled a mainly Egyptian proposal that could include up to $20-billion in funding over three years from Gulf and Arab states, but there was no official confirmation.
Iran will not yield to US ‘pressure and sanctions’ on nuclear dispute
Iran would not succumb to pressure and sanctions imposed by Washington, said the Islamic Republic’s top diplomat on Tuesday after meeting his Russian counterpart, days after Moscow held initial talks with the US just a month after Trump returned to the White House.
During his one-day trip to Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed regional and bilateral topics with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, reported state media.
The visit comes a day after the US imposed a fresh round of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry, the Islamic Republic’s main source of income.
Trump earlier this month restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive the country’s oil exports to zero, reimposing a tough policy on Iran that was practised throughout his first term.
“Iran’s position regarding nuclear talks is clear and we will not negotiate under pressure and sanctions,” said Araqchi during a televised joint press conference with Lavrov.
“There is no possibility of direct negotiations with the US as long as maximum pressure is being applied in this way.”
While Trump had said he would “love to make a deal” with Iran’s clerical rulers, Iran’s utmost authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this month that talks with the US were “not smart, wise or honourable”.
However, he stopped short of renewing a ban on direct talks with Washington decreed during the first Trump administration.
In 2018, during his previous term in office, Trump pulled the US out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.
Tehran has since breached the pact’s nuclear limitations and efforts to revive the pact under the Biden administration failed. DM
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