Hamas officials ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
Hamas is ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase of the ongoing truce in Gaza, two officials from the Palestinian militant group told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
“Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said on condition of anonymity. “We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiation,” said another.
Hamas, has quickly reasserted its control over Gaza since the ceasefire took hold last month, has said it will not release the hostages slated to go free in the second phase without an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Trump’s repeated demand that Egypt and Jordan absorb 1.5 million Gaza residents – a demand forcefully denounced as ethnic cleansing by the two countries and other Arab nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have already complicated negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire.
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Updated at 14.44 GMT
Key events
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The office of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his schedule during his visit to Washington.
Today, the prime minister will meet evangelical leaders at 5:00 p.m. EST at the Blair House in Washington DC.
At 6:30 p.m., the schedule has him meeting US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
The main event will take place tomorrow when Netanyahu meets President Donald Trump, at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, followed by a joint press conference and an off-the-record briefing for Israeli journalists. On the agenda will be the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza and Israel’s relationship with Iran.
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Updated at 17.50 GMT
Good evening. Here’s a summary of today’s events so far…
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin talks today on brokering a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, his office said, as he visits the new Trump administration in Washington. Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, without defining what this would mean in practical terms, contending with Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets with the US President on Tuesday.
Hamas is ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase of the ongoing truce in Gaza, two officials from the Palestinian militant group told Agence France-Presse on Monday. “Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said on condition of anonymity. “We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiation,” said another.
The head of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, says Israel must be held accountable for the “genocide” that has been “committed,” adding that the current ceasefire must not mean that we forget what happened over the last 15 months. “In fact, if you have any sense of the future, you need a reckoning for the past. Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed, and accountability must be delivered for it,” the secretary-general told Al Jazeera.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the Israeli military is continuing its raid on the West Bank city of Jenin for the 14th consecutive day, which the outlet says has killed at least 25 Palestinian people, injured dozens of others and has involved the demolition of dozens of homes.
The office of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said the ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank amounts to “ethnic cleansing” and urged the US to intervene. In a statement, spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing”.
The Palestinian ministry of health says the Israeli military have killed at least 70 people, including 10 children in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025. Thirty eight were killed in Jenin; 15 in Tubas; six in Nablus; five in Tulkarem; three in Hebron; two in Bethlehem; and one in Jerusalem.
A car bomb killed at least 15 people in the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Monday The attack is the second there in three days; Syria’s deadliest since Bashar al-Assad was unseated from power in December 2024. No one has claimed responsibility for the car bombing in the relatively small city, located 30km (19 miles) from the Turkish border.
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Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain in Washington until Saturday night, his office says, citing “the many requests for meetings from US officials”.
He was originally due to return to Israel on Thursday. Netanyahu will be in the United States when the next planned release of Israeli hostages takes place.
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Updated at 17.33 GMT
Stephanie Kirchgaessner
A Sweden-based Libyan activist who has been a vocal critic of Italy and its dealings in Libya was alerted by WhatsApp last week that he had been targeted with military-grade spyware, raising new concerns about the possible use of powerful cyberweapons by European governments.
The alleged breach of Husam El Gomati’s mobile phone – as well as the mobile phones of 89 other activists, journalists and members of civil society – was discovered by WhatsApp in late December.
The California-based messaging app, which is owned by Meta, said it was not clear how long El Gomati’s and other mobile phones were “possibly compromised”. It said it believed the spyware was made by Paragon Solutions, an Israel-based company that was recently taken over by a US private equity company.
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Updated at 16.45 GMT
Ofer Cassif, a member of the Israeli parliament representing the Hadash party, says Netanyahu and the “thugs around him” are not interested in saving Israeli hostages or a ceasefire, amid delay to the second phase of Gaza ceasefire talks.
Cassif added that the delay to the talks is “a terrifying sign”, and that the Israeli president is only interested in staying out of prison.
That’s the only thing he cares about and he doesn’t matter for him if it comes at the expense of the lives of thousands and thousands of people, Palestinians and Israelis alike,” he argued.
And the thugs around him in the coalition, mainly those who are part of the fanatic, fascist parties, they are interested in using the human blood as a carpet for the Messiah – they truly that the continuation of the genocide in Gaza and more violence in the West Bank – as we saw just in the last few days – is part of their dream, which is in fact a nightmare, they believe that will bring the Messiah and the Third Temple etc, and all this hogwash. They don’t care about human lives.”.
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Updated at 16.22 GMT
Palestinians queue to buy bread amid ceasefire in Gaza.
A Palestinian boy carries a plastic bag with bread Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Palestinians wait to buy bread, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Palestinians carry plastic bags with bread Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Palestinians wait to buy bread, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
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A car bomb killed at least 15 people in the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Monday
The attack is the second there in three days; Syria’s deadliest since Bashar al-Assad was unseated from power in December 2024.
No one has claimed responsibility for the car bombing in the relatively small city, located 30km (19 miles) from the Turkish border.
The civil defence rescue service say among the dead are 14 women and one man, adding that another 15 women were wounded.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) condemned the car bombing, accusing Turkey-backed factions of using such bombings and violence to intimidate local residents.
The victims were agricultural workers and the death toll was likely to rise, a civil defence official told Reuters.
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Updated at 15.23 GMT
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu saved Hamas by declining to advance an alternate government for the Gaza Strip, leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan says via The Times of Israel.
Speaking with reporters ahead of The Democrats’ weekly meeting in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Golan argues that Hamas’ “recovery in Gaza is a direct result of Netanyahu’s continued policy of neglecting security.”
His refusal to introduce a governing alternative to Hamas in Gaza stemmed from his preference for Smotrich and Ben Gvir in the coalition over the safety of the hostages and soldiers, thereby allowing Hamas to continue to control the Strip and restore its status. I want to be clear: The IDF severely damaged Hamas, but Netanyahu, who did not care about an alternative government, saved it. Hamas needs to be eliminated – not saved.
Victory over Hamas will not be achieved solely through military force – it requires a complementary, determined and strategic move in the regional arena. As long as Hamas remains the sole governmental address in Gaza, any achievement on the battlefield will be temporary, and a future military campaign is only a matter of time.
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Updated at 15.12 GMT
Hamas officials ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
Hamas is ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase of the ongoing truce in Gaza, two officials from the Palestinian militant group told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
“Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said on condition of anonymity. “We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiation,” said another.
Hamas, has quickly reasserted its control over Gaza since the ceasefire took hold last month, has said it will not release the hostages slated to go free in the second phase without an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Trump’s repeated demand that Egypt and Jordan absorb 1.5 million Gaza residents – a demand forcefully denounced as ethnic cleansing by the two countries and other Arab nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have already complicated negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire.
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Updated at 14.44 GMT
Hamas officials say ’ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
More to follow…
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Gaza must be demilitarised before it is rebuilt, says Former IDF chief
The Gaza Strip must be demilitarised before it is rebuilt, says former deputy prime minister and IDF chief Benny Gantz.
“The transition to phase two of the hostage deal must include the replacement of the Hamas regime and the demilitarization of Gaza,” the former war cabinet minister tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“The reconstruction efforts in Gaza must be conditioned on the replacement of the Hamas regime. Either Gaza will be demilitarized – or it will remain demolished. That must be the condition for reconstruction, in coordination with the United States and the world.”
Gantz insists that Israel must ensure that Hamas is not able to access humanitarian aid meant for Gazan civilians and argues that “even after the Hamas regime is replaced, it will remain the strongest military force in Gaza – we must not allow for that to happen.”
“Once it is replaced and is cut off from its financial sources, we must hunt every Hamas terrorist in every last tunnel and hideout,” he argues.
He adds that it is now also time “to dismantle the Iranian nuclear project.”
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Qatar, a key mediator in the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel which came into effect late last month, has launched an air bridge from Jordan to al-Qarara in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis to bring vital medical supplies into the territory.
In a statement, Qatar’s foreign ministry said the bridge will help to ease the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza and help with the “medical needs” of the population.
The ministry added in the post on X that since the beginning of the truce (on 19 January – the day before Trump’s inauguration) Qatar has sent 65 relief trucks through the Jordanian border.
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Updated at 14.05 GMT
Here are some fuller quotes from the presidency of the Palestinian Authority condemning the Israeli military’s deadly raids across the occupied West Bank (see post at 11.39 where we mentioned that the office of Palestinian president Mahmud denounced the raids as “ethnic cleansing”).
In a statement, spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said:
These aggressive policies carried out by the occupation forces in the West Bank have led to the death of 29 citizens, hundreds of wounded and detainees, in addition to the destruction of entire residential blocks in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps, the displacement of thousands of citizens, and massive destruction of infrastructure.
He called on the Trump administration to intervene “before it is too late to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression, which will lead to an uncontrollable escalation, with consequences that everyone will bear”.
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Updated at 13.32 GMT
‘Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed,’ says charity’s secretary-general
The head of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, says Israel must be held accountable for the “genocide” that has been “committed,” adding that the current ceasefire must not mean that we forget what happened over the last 15 months.
“In fact, if you have any sense of the future, you need a reckoning for the past. Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed, and accountability must be delivered for it,” the secretary-general told Al Jazeera.
“Regarding the few states that refuse to acknowledge the evidence, it is clearly a position that is political, it is not a legal or empirical position.”
Callamard said Amnesty is paying close attention to the events unfolding in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out raids every day for the last fortnight.
What we do know and what we have investigated in the past, demonstrate a multiplication of violations, including of the responsibility of Israel as the occupier. Let’s recall that Israel is unlawfully occupying the West Bank, and it has a responsibility under international law as a military occupier and clearly, every one of those responsibilities are being violated right now,” she said.
Are we looking at war crimes? It will demand a number of analyses that we have not conducted yet. But there is absolutely no doubt that human rights violations are being committed, including the unlawful destruction of Palestinian property, and unlawful detention, and forced displacement. Will that amount to committing genocide? It will take more time to reach that conclusion.
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Updated at 13.02 GMT
Despite the ceasefire agreement, the future of Palestinian refugees in Egypt remains uncertain.
Some are determined to return to what’s left of their homes as soon as they have the chance: “There is nothing better than one’s country and land,” Hussien Farahat, a father of two, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, others are inert, not knowing what to do or what will become of them, as they fear they may not have a home to go back to after Israel’s campaign of destruction, but they know they can’t stay where they are.
“Even if the war were over, we still do not know our fate and nobody mentioned those stranded in Cairo. Are we going back, or what will happen to us? And if we go back, what will happen to us? Our houses are gone,” said Abeer Kamal, who has lived in Cairo since November 2023 and sells handmade bags with her sisters.
“There is nothing, not my house, or my family, or siblings, nothing,” she said.
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Thousands of Palestinians reject the prospect of a mass displacement proposed by President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
A lot of people are torn, and I am one of them,” said Shorouk, who earns a living selling Palestinian food in Cairo, going by the name Gaza Girl.
Do you choose to go back and sit in the destruction and a place that still needs to be reconstructed or stay and go back when it is reconstructed?
We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza. If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost.”
Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Gaza and relocate millions of Palestinians to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan has been comprehensively denounced across the Middle East as ethnic cleansing.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said. Asked if it would a temporary or long-term solution, he said: “Could be either”.
One hundred thousand Palestinians are sheltering in Egypt, and many say they do not know how or when they can go home. However, the majority of the 2.3 million Palestinians made homeless remain in temporary shelters within Gaza’s borders.
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