Hamas reports no progress in discussions with Israel on the second phase of fire cessation

Cairo – The last round of discussions in the second phase of ceasing the fire between Israel and Hamas did not make progress and it is not clear if they resume on Saturday, a Hamas official said.

Phase one expires on Saturday, but under the agreement, the fight should not resume while the negotiations are in progress in the second phase, which could end the war in Gaza, you see that the Israeli troops withdraw and see that the live hostages have returned home. According to Israel, 32 of the 59 hostages still in Gaza are dead.

The first phase, which interrupted 15 months of fighting in Gaza, saw the release of 33 hostages, including eight corpses, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of people returned home to Northern Gaza, the help of the territory grew and the Israeli forces withdrew to the buffer areas.

Civil servants in Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States were involved in the second phase in Cairo. Hamas did not participate, but his position was represented through Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political office, told The Associated Press that there was no “any progress” before Israeli negotiators would return home on Friday.

It was not clear if these mediators would return to Cairo to resume discussions on Saturday, as expected, and Naim said he had no “any idea” when negotiations could resume.

Hamas began the war with his attack on October 7, 2023, which left 1,200 dead in Israel, largely civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Since then, the military offensive of Israel has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza, who do not differ between civil and combatants, but say that more than half of the dead were women and children.

The two parties agreed with the agreement to cease three -phase fire in January.