Gaza ceasefire talks back on track after prisoner agreement

Israel has agreed to release Palestinian prisoners who were due to be freed last week in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli hostages, Egyptian state-linked media reported.

Washington’s top Middle East envoy said talks for a second phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal remained on track.

Palestinian militant group Hamas late Tuesday confirmed the release agreement, negotiated under Egyptian supervision.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump’s point person on the Middle East said Israeli representatives were already en route to talks on the next phase of the ceasefire deal.

“We’re making a lot of progress. Israel is sending a team right now as we speak,” Steve Witkoff told an event for the American Jewish Committee.

“It’s either going to be in Doha or in Cairo, where negotiations will begin again with the Egyptians and the Qataris,” he said.

This first phase is supposed to end on Saturday, but negotiations planned for the rest of the process — which were to begin in early February — have not started.

Hamas has said it is ready to release “in one go” all the hostages remaining during the second phase.

On Sunday, the group accused Israel of endangering the Gaza truce by delaying the release of 600 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel justified the delay by citing concerns over how the hostages have been freed, with Netanyahu describing the process as “humiliating ceremonies”.

‘Dignified swaps’

Since the ceasefire took effect on January 19, Hamas has released 25 Israeli hostages in public ceremonies across Gaza, where masked, armed fighters have escorted the captives onto stages decorated with slogans.

Israel has released over 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has urged all parties to carry out prisoner and hostage swaps “in a dignified and private manner”.

Given the nature of the deep-rooted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, prisoner releases from Israeli jails are highly controversial.

In Israel, the prisoners are largely viewed as “terrorists” for the violent attacks they have carried out against civilians and security forces.

The Israeli authorities and much of the public see their imprisonment as a necessary measure to prevent further attacks.

For Palestinians, however, the releases are viewed as long-delayed justice with the prisoners often regarded as symbols of resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Ceasefire holds

Both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, but it has so far held.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its October 7, 2023 attack, and has made bringing back all hostages seized that day one of its war objectives.

The attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, and Israel’s war on Gaza killed more than 48,000 in Palestinian territory, according to figures from both sides.

In Israel, hundreds of people attended the funeral Tuesday of hostage Oded Lifshitz, a peace activist and former journalist who died in captivity and whose body was returned last week.

“We have fought all these years for social justice and peace. Unfortunately, we have received a terrible blow from those we helped on the other side,” said his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, who was also kidnapped on October 7 in Kibbutz Nir Oz but released a few weeks later.

Three other Israelis kidnapped in Nir Oz — Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two boys Ariel and Kfir, aged four and eight and a half months respectively — will be buried on Wednesday.

Alongside the Gaza war — which displaced almost the enclave’s entire population of 2.4 million — Israel has intensified its military operations in the West Bank.

The Israeli army said Tuesday it also carried out air strikes targeting military sites containing weapons in southern Syria, just days after Netanyahu called for demilitarising the area.

At least two people were killed by a strike on one of the sites, the headquarters of a military unit southwest of Damascus, a war monitor said.