Almost a week after the first phase of the ceasefire the fire of Israel and Hamas, both the Palestinians and the Israelis are in limbo, uncertain for how long the truce.
The Trump administration, the Arab world, Israel, Hamas and others are now fighting for the future of the Gaza Strip in a complex series of negotiations – some of which are taking place along several channels, adding to the confusion.
Here is a look at the state of the interviews of ceased the fire and who is involved.
Israel and Hamas are negotiating through mediators.
In mid -January, after 15 months of devastating war, Israel and Hamas agreed on a truce that would have freed hostages held in Gaza from the attack led by Hamas to October 2023 in Southern Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
But the agreement did not end the war. Instead, the two sides engaged in a complex multi -phase plane, destined to build slender towards a ceased fire. They should have negotiated terms for the entire respite during the first phase, which lasted six weeks.
Last weekend, the six weeks spent apparently successful towards this goal, despite the efforts of Qatar and Egypt, who mediated the interviews. (Israel and Hamas do not negotiate directly.)
Therefore, Israel mainly closed the crossings in the Gaza Strip, preventing the aid from entering to reach the Palestinians who are still fighting to recover from a year of hunger and destruction. The Qatar condemned the move as a violation of the agreement of the fire, which establishes that 600 trucks that bring food, fuel and other goods must enter the Gaza on a daily basis.
The Trump administration has sent contrasting signals in the following steps. The officials said they hope to reach the second complete phase of the fire.
The United States and Israel are talking about a different path.
For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, agreeing to pause the fighting was the easy part. He was much more reluctant to declare the end of the Israel war against Hamas while the group remains firmly rooted in Gaza.
While the first phase of the ceased the fire expired, Netanyahu said that Israel had accepted a new proposal launched by Steve Witkoff, sent to the Middle East of President Trump. That plan breaks significantly with the truce signed in mid -January.
According to the new proposal, Israel would immediately get half of the remaining hostages in exchange for another 50 days of a “temporary fire”. During that period, Israel and Hamas would have continued in talks on a permanent end of the war.
The remaining hostages would be released “if we reached an agreement on a ceased fire,” said Netanyahu.
Witkoff’s proposal would actually allow Israel to recover multiple hostages without giving Hamas one of his fundamental requests. The Palestinian armed group invited Israel and the United States to play the January agreement as written, seeming to exclude the agreement as a non-start.
But at the same time, Trump issued proposals that shocked the Region, including soliciting the permanent displacement of the Palestinian residents of Gaza and an American led acquisition of the territory. He also issued Ultimatum to Hamas to immediately return all the hostages, a request that contradicts the staggered outputs prescribed by the ceasefire agreement.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump issued a “last warning” to Hamas on social media, asking the armed group to immediately return the remaining hostages “or ended up for you”.
“I am sending to Israel everything he needs to finish the job, not a single member of Hamas will be safe if you don’t do it as I said,” Trump wrote.
Hamas said that Mr. Trump’s threats were encouraging Israel to avoid negotiating the end of the war. “The language of threats does not intimidate us; It only further complicates things, “said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, in a statement published on a Telegram channel affiliated to Hamas.
The Trump administration is also talking to Hamas.
During last week, the administration of Mr. Trump has held intense and secret direct meetings with Hamas aimed at guaranteeing the release of American citizens seized during the attack of October 2023.
The meetings brought the apparently dying talks between Israel and Hamas. They also broke with the long -standing American approach to Hamas, who tried to isolate the Palestinian armed group through a “contact” policy.
The critics had long argued that not to engage with Hamas over the years had produced few tangible results. In practice, the United States ended up facing the group, generally through mediators such as Qatar and Egypt.
Adam Boehler, candidate for Mr. Trump to be a special correspondent for hostage affairs, met Hamas officials in Doha, Qatar, this week, according to a diplomat who is familiar with interviews.
The negotiations focused on the liberation of Edan Alexander, the only American Israeli hostage still deemed alive, and the bodies of four other double US-Israel citizens who were kidnapped and brought to Gaza in the attack on October 2023, said the officials at the New York Times.
One of these is Itiy Chen, 19 years old, an American-Israeli soldier. The Israeli army declared last year that she had been presumed to be killed during the attack led by Hamas, although her family expressed the hope of still being alive.
“If the government of Israel is unable to free Italy,” said Ruby Chen, his father, after the news on the direct interviews with Hamas have broken, “then it is reasonable that the United States try to do it.”
Rasgon man AND Ronen Bergman Contributed relationships.