Israel sends negotiators to Cairo to extend phase-one of Gaza ceasefire

Jerusalem/Tel Aviv/Gaza: Israel announced on Thursday it was sending negotiators to Cairo for talks, seeking to extend a first phase of a ceasefire due to expire in two days, in the apparent aim of securing the release of more hostages while delaying any final deal on Gaza's future.

The announcement came after Hamas handed over four bodies of hostages, the last due to be released under the terms of the six-week first phase of the ceasefire that started on January 19. Talks have yet to begin on a second phase that would ultimately lead to a permanent end to the war.

Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters in Jerusalem the delegation would travel to Egypt to see whether there was common ground to negotiate an extension to the truce.

"We said we are ready to make the framework longer in return to release more hostages. If it is possible, we'll do that."

Two government officials told Reuters that Israel was seeking to extend the initial phase, with Hamas freeing three hostages each week in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.

The warring sides have not spelled out what would happen beyond Saturday if the first phase of the ceasefire expires with no agreement. Egypt and Qatar are mediating between Israel and Hamas, with the backing of the United States.

The initial phase of the ceasefire included the handover of 33 Israeli hostages in return for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. Fighting was paused and Israeli troops withdrew from some positions in Gaza.

Talks over the second phase, intended to secure the release of the remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, had been meant to start earlier this month.

Israel's government faces public pressure to stick to the ceasefire to free remaining hostages, while some within the right-wing government want to return to war to fulfil their objective of eradicating Hamas.

Israel said three of the four hostages whose bodies had been handed over overnight had been murdered in captivity, and the fourth had been killed on the day they were captured during the Hamas-led raid that precipitated the war.

The dire condition of hostages handed over in recent weeks, including some who appeared emaciated and others Israel says were murdered by their captors, including a baby, have intensified Israeli public anger, potentially impacting talks to extend the truce.

Hamas said on Thursday it was ready to begin talks on the second phase and that the only way remaining hostages in Gaza would be freed is through commitment to the ceasefire.

Israeli authorities believe fewer than half of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are still alive.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen told public broadcaster Kan that Israel demanded that the military stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs the length of Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

Israeli troops are supposed to start withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border area on Saturday, when the first phase of the ceasefire is set to end.

Cohen said Israel was in a stronger position to negotiate now than it was on the eve of the ceasefire because it has full backing from the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, which this month began shipping heavy bombs.

The final four bodies of hostages in the deal's first phase were handed over in return for 643 Palestinians either detained by Israeli forces in Gaza or jailed in Israel. The bodies were returned without a public display of the coffins before crowds in Gaza, after such displays angered Israel.

President Isaac Herzog in a post on X confirmed the bodies were those of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur, all abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack from their kibbutz homes near Gaza.

Some Solace

"In this painful moment, there is some solace in knowing that they will be laid to rest in dignity in Israel," he wrote.

Idan, Yahalomi and Elgarat were murdered in captivity in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, while Mantzur was killed on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas attack.

Hamas took 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people in its raid on southern Israeli communities, according to Israel. Around half of the hostages were freed during the war's only previous truce in November 2023, and others have been recovered alive or dead during the war.

More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, Palestinian authorities say. The war has laid waste to the crowded coastal enclave and displaced the majority of its population multiple times.

The Palestinians released overnight include 445 men and 24 women and minors detained in Gaza, as well as 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, according to a Hamas source.

One bus transported detainees from Israel's Ofer prison in the Occupied West Bank to Ramallah where cheering crowds had gathered to greet them.

Bilal Yassin, 42, told Reuters he had been in Israeli detention for 20 years.

"Our sacrifices and imprisonment were not in vain," Yassin said. "We had confidence in the resistance."

Nearly 100 Palestinian prisoners were handed over to Egypt, where they will stay until another country accepts them, according to a Hamas source and Egyptian media.