JERUSALEM: Israel said yesterday it endorsed a proposal to temporarily extend the truce in Gaza as a bridging measure after the first phase of its ceasefire with Hamas drew to a close.
The proposal, put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, would cover Ramadan, due to end late March, and Passover, lasting through mid-April, according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office released just after midnight.
The first phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas was set to expire over the weekend without any certainty as to the second phase, which is hoped to bring a more permanent end to the Gaza war.
Negotiations have so far been inconclusive, with the fate of hostages still held in Gaza and the lives of more than two million Palestinians hanging in the balance.
According to the Israeli statement, the extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza released on the day the deal comes into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.
There was no immediate response from Hamas, which earlier rejected the idea of an extension.
Israel’s backing of what it described as a US plan comes amid a flurry of warnings not to restart the war, which after 15 months devastated Gaza, displaced almost the entire population of the coastal strip and sparked a hunger crisis.
United Nations head Antonio Guterres warned against a “catastrophic” return to war and said a “permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages are essential to preventing escalation and averting more devastating consequences for civilians”.
Meanwhile Washington announced late Saturday it was boosting its military aid to Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was using “emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance”, noting that a partial arms embargo imposed under former president Joe Biden had been reversed.
Israeli officials engaged in ceasefire negotiations with Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators in Cairo last week. But by early Saturday there was no sign of consensus as Muslims in Gaza marked the first day of Ramadan with coloured lights brightening war-damaged neighbourhoods.
A senior Hamas official told AFP the Palestinian group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase.
“Hamas will not be happy to drag on phase one, but it doesn’t really have the capacity to force Israel to go on to phase two,” Max Rodenbeck, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, told AFP.
Under the six-week ceasefire that took effect on January 19, Gaza Hamas freed 25 living hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The deal, reached following months of gruelling negotiations, largely halted the war that erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
While Hamas on several occasions reiterated its “readiness to engage in negotiations for its second phase”, Israel preferred to secure more hostage releases under an extension of the first phase. – AFP
