Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will preside over a security cabinet meeting on Monday to address the second phase of the cease cessation agreement with Hamas in Gaza, his office said. This move comes after Netanyahu informed the envoy of US President Donald Trump for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, about the meeting “to address the second phase of the agreement” of cease fire between Israel and the Islamist movement Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, which entered into force on January 19.
A Common Strategy
The head of American diplomacy, Marco Rubio, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed a united front against their common enemies on Sunday, threatening to open “the doors of hell” to Hamas and “end the work” against the Iranian threat. After talking with Rubio, who began his first tour of the Middle East in Israel, Netanyahu assured that his country and the USA have a “common strategy” regarding the future of the Gaza Strip. He praised the “bold vision” of President Donald Trump, who proposed to take control of the Palestinian territory and displace its population to Egypt and Jordan, and said he will work “to ensure that this vision will come true.”
The visit of the Secretary of State to Israel occurs the day after the release of three Israeli hostages captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners arrested in the Hebrew state. This was the sixth exchange since the truce entered into force on January 19, after more than 15 months of war. Marco Rubio insisted on Sunday that the Hamas Islamist movement must be “eliminated”, while Netanyahu warned that Israel will open “the doors of hell” in Gaza unless all hostages return, taking up a Donald Trump statement.
Subsequently, the office of Netanyahu announced that the leader will preside over a security cabinet meeting on Monday to address the second phase of the cease fire agreement with Hamas. He also announced the sending of a negotiating team to Cairo on Monday “to discuss the continuation of the implementation of the first phase of the agreement.”
Resumption of Negotiations?
The first phase of the truce, negotiated with the mediation of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, allowed so far to release 19 Israeli hostages and 1,134 Palestinians. The agreement provides that 33 hostages be released at that stage, in exchange for 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. The second phase of the agreement must allow the return of all hostages and the definitive end of the war, but its implementation is uncertain because the negotiations still have not begun. The third and final stage will be consecrated to the reconstruction of the strip, for which the UN estimates that more than 53,000 million dollars will be necessary.
The conflict began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas’s attack in southern Israel that caused 1,211 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP balance based on official Israeli data. The Islamist commands also captured 251 people that day, of which 70 are still in Gaza, although 35 are dead, according to the Israeli army. In response, Israel launched a relentless offensive in Gaza, which already left at least 48,271 dead, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Territory – governed by Hamas – that the UN considers reliable.
In addition to referring to Hamas, Netanyahu on Sunday said that his country “will end the work” against the “Iranian threat” with the support of the United States, after having granted “a powerful blow to the terrorist axis” of the Islamic Republic since October 2023. Iran is the largest “source of instability” in the region, said Rubio, who also met with his counterpart Gideon Sa’ar, with President Isaac Herzog, and with the head of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid.