Israel supports U.S. proposal to extend cease-fire’s first phase. Hamas wants Phase 2

CAIRO — Israel’s government said early Sunday that it supports a proposal to extend the first phase of the cease-fire in Gaza through Ramadan and Passover, though the militant group Hamas has insisted on negotiating the truce’s second phase instead.

The statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office came minutes after the first phase ended, and as talks have begun on launching the second phase that’s aimed at ending the war and seeing all remaining living hostages in Gaza returned home.

The statement gives new details on what Israel described as a U.S. proposal: a cease-fire extension through Passover, or April 20. On the first day, half the hostages, alive and dead, would be released. The rest would be released if agreement is reached on a permanent cease-fire.

The statement said it was proposed after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff got “the impression that at this stage there was no possibility of bridging the positions of the parties to end the war, and that more time was needed for talks on a permanent cease-fire.”

There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which earlier rejected an Israeli proposal to extend the cease-fire’s first phase by 42 days — doubling its length — saying it goes against the truce agreement, according to a member of the group who requested anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Officials from Israel and mediators Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. have been involved in negotiations on starting the cease-fire’s second phase in Cairo. But Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told the Associated Press that there had been “no progress” before Israeli negotiators returned home Friday. Hamas did not attend, but its position has been represented through Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

Under the deal’s terms, fighting should not resume while negotiations are underway on Phase 2.

Israel’s new statement says it can return to fighting “if it believes that the negotiations are ineffective,” and it noted Hamas’ refusal to accept the proposal for an extension of the first phase.

However, “if Hamas changes its position, Israel will immediately enter into negotiations on all the details of the Witkoff plan,” the statement says.

Before Israel’s new statement, an Egyptian official involved in the talks spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. The official said Hamas, Qatar and Egypt wanted to continue with the existing cease-fire deal, and they rejected Israel’s proposal to extend the cease-fire for four weeks with a release of hostages every Saturday without officially entering negotiations on the second phase.

The Egyptian official said the U.S. wants to start negotiations on the second phase but called for hostage releases during the negotiations. Hamas insisted on a full implementation of the cease-fire terms.

The first phase, which paused 15 months of fighting in Gaza, saw the release of 33 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of people returned home to northern Gaza, aid into the territory increased, and Israeli forces withdrew to buffer zones.

Hamas sparked the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and about 250 others taken hostage. Since then, Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but say more than half the dead have been women and children.

According to Israel, 32 of the 59 hostages still in Gaza are dead.

The two sides agreed to the three-phase cease-fire deal in January. Talks on the second phase were meant to start the first week of February. Israelis rallied Saturday night to urge their government to continue the deal.

Hamas has reaffirmed its “full commitment to implementing all terms of the agreement in all its stages and details” and called on the international community to pressure Israel to immediately proceed to the second phase.

Other challenges complicate the cease-fire’s future. Israel has said Hamas cannot be involved in governing Gaza after the war. Netanyahu has also ruled out any role in Gaza for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, dominated by Hamas’ main rival, Fatah.

Hamas leader Mohamed Darwish on Saturday reiterated that the group is willing to hand over power to a Palestinian national consensus government or an Egypt-proposed body of technocrats not aligned with Hamas or Fatah. His comments came in an open letter to next week’s summit of Arab leaders in Cairo. Hamas has dismissed Israel’s suggestion that its leadership go into exile.

In Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, AP video showed a long table set for the breaking of the day’s Ramadan fast, snaking through the ruins and illuminated by strings of lights as the sky darkened.

War-weary Palestinians marked the first day of the holy month with fasting and more worries.

“Today there is a lot of goodness, but there is no money,” said Huda Matar about the skyrocketing prices.

Magdy writes for the Associated Press.