Israel and Hamas will start indirect negotiations on a second stage of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, officials announced on Tuesday, while the Palestinian militant group announced that it would give more hostages, including The bodies of two children this week.
Khalil Al-Hayya, head of Hamas in Gaza, said that the bodies of four hostages, including those of the Bibas family, would have returned on Thursday. Six living hostages would follow on Saturday.
The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that an agreement had been concluded in Cairo to ensure the release of six hostages Living on Saturday, four hostages died on Thursday and four others next week, but stopped to appoint one two.
An Israeli official said that deceased hostages will have an identification in Israel before their name.
Negotiations for the second phase of the agreement were to start on February 4 – but Qatar, which, with Egypt and the United States, was media between the parties – said that the talks had not yet officially started .
“It will happen this week,” the Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Saar said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
Israel had given mixed signals in recent weeks on his commitment to talks during the next stage of the ceasefire with three phases, which entered into force on January 19 with the declared objective of ending permanence at the Gaza War.
Mother, 2 children would have killed at the end of 2023
The Bibas family, including Kfir Bibas, who was less than a year old when he was kidnapped and his brother Ariel, four years at the time, was among the most prominent Israeli hostages during the attack October 7, 2023 Hamas.
Their father Yarden Bibas was released this month, but their mother Shiri was not. Hamas said in late 2023 that Shiri and children had been killed by Israeli bombings.
Israel did not confirm their death and only said that he was very worrying for their lives. After the announcement of Hamas, he called to respect the privacy of families hostage.
Hamas activists released three Israeli male hostages on Saturday and Israeli forces began to release hundreds of prisoners in return after Egyptian and Qatari mediators helped to avoid a confrontation that threatened to flow a fragile ceasefire in Gaza . Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/1.7460415.
The family said it was “in troubles” since the announcement of Hamas. “Until we received a final confirmation, our trip is not over,” he said in a statement.
The identity of the fourth hostages deceased has not yet been announced, but the families of the six living hostages that will be published on Saturday have been informed.
Eliyah Cohen, 27, Tal Shoham, 40, Omer Shem Tov, 22, Omer Wenkert, 23 was all taken hostage on Oct 7 about ten years ago and was detained since.
Negotiations on the 2nd phase to start
The initial phase of the ceasefire agreement, which includes a 42-day truce and the return of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of prisoners and Palestinian prisoners, remained on the right track despite a series of setbacks and accusations of violations that had threatened to derail he.
But negotiations during the second stage, aimed at the release of the remaining 64 hostages, should be difficult because they include problems such as post-war Gaza, where there are large gaps between sides.
“We will not accept the continuous presence of Hamas or any other terrorist organization in Gaza,” said Saar.
But he added that if the negotiations are constructive, Israel will remain engaged and could prolong the ceasefire.
“If we will see that there is a constructive dialogue with a possible horizon to reach an agreement (then), we will make this period of time work longer,” said Saar.
Remaining hostages that would be dead
So far, 19 Israeli hostages have been returned in exchange for the release of hundreds of prisoners and Palestinian prisoners. If the six living hostages and four bodies have returned this week, as announced, four others would remain. Based on Hamas information, the four are considered dead.
The hostages were taken in the cross -border attack led by Hamas in October 2023, which killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel, according to Israeli accounts.
Israel’s retaliatory assault against Gaza killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, relaxed a large part of the enclave and moved hundreds of thousands.
An Israeli official said that Israel will also begin to allow the entry of mobile houses for gas to be sheltered by the winter weather among the ruins left by the 15 months of Israeli bombardments. The construction equipment was authorized Tuesday in the southern city of Rafah.
Hamas accused Israel of delaying delivery and threatened to postpone the release of hostages until the problem is solved.
The fragile ceasefire agreement was also overshadowed by the call of the American president Donald Trump so that the Palestinians are moved and that Gaza is considered a development by the water under the control of the United States .
The plan has been rejected by Palestinian groups, Arab states and Washington Western allies who say it is equivalent to ethnic cleaning. Israeli leaders have argued that the Gazans who want to leave the devastated enclave should be allowed to do so.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that he would create a new unit of his ministry dedicated to facilitating the exit of Gaza residents who wish to move to a third country, after examining an initial plan for this.
