# Gaza ceasefire talks stall, as Egypt proposes long-term reconstruction plan

Israel had agreed partial troop withdrawal by 9 March, but start of second phase of truce hits impasse

Talks aimed at maintaining the ceasefire in Gaza hit an impasse in Cairo on Saturday over whether the truce should advance to a second phase.

A Hamas official said the multilateral negotiations in the Egyptian capital had made no progress on Friday, and there was no evidence the talks had resumed on Saturday, the last day of the ceasefire’s first six-week phase.

In the early hours of Sunday, the office of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it would adopt a plan it said had been put forward by the US mediator, Steve Witkoff, for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, for the Ramadan and Passover periods, during which half of the living hostages and half the bodies of those who have died would be released.

On the conclusion of that temporary extension, the statement said: “If agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire – the remaining living and deceased hostages will be released.”

The plan as described was very similar to Israel’s proposal for a six week extension of the first phase of the ceasefire, with hostage releases but no mention of the troop withdrawal which were part of the original truce agreement in January.

Hamas said the proposal made clear that Israel was seeking to disavow the deal it previously signed.

“This continued manipulation will not return the hostages to their families.. But on the contrary... it will lead to their continued suffering and endangering their lives,” a senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, was quoted as saying in the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency and other Palestinian media.

Hamas has not been directly participating in the talks in Cairo, but it has been coordinating with Qatari and Egyptian officials who are at the negotiating table with US and Israeli delegations. The negotiators left Cairo on Friday night, and there was no sign of them reconvening late on Saturday.

While the first phase of the ceasefire chiefly involved the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, an increase in aid deliveries and a retreat of Israeli troops from some positions, the second phase requires a complete Israeli withdrawal and a more enduring cessation of hostilities.

The withdrawal would first involve a pullback from the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called control of the buffer zone a strategic necessity but agreed in January to complete the withdrawal from Philadelphi by the 50th day of the ceasefire agreement, 9 March.

Such a retreat could however trigger the collapse of his rightwing coalition which would in turn force new elections, in which Netanyahu’s political future would be uncertain.

Israeli political analysts have suggested that Netanyahu agreed to the ceasefire under pressure from Donald Trump, confident that the agreement would never reach a second phase. Trump’s Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has however insisted that a second phase of the ceasefire deal should be implemented, to ensure the release of the remaining 59 hostages, only 25 of whom are thought to be still alive. Most Israelis also want the government to make a priority of freeing the hostages, but that position is opposed by the Israeli far right, without whom the coalition could not stay in power. The rightist parties argue Israel’s priority should be the destruction of Hamas.

In the truce agreement in January there is provision for the ceasefire to hold even if the first phase ends without agreement on a second, as long as good faith negotiations are continuing. Earlier last week, Witkoff said he would return to the region on Sunday if the talks went well. It was unclear on Saturday whether he still intended to make the trip.

There remains no agreement on who should run Gaza once an enduring end to the war can be agreed. Trump caused consternation and bewilderment early in February with the shock suggestion that the US should “own” Gaza, which would be somehow emptied of its more than two million Palestinian inhabitants to make way for a “Riviera on the Mediterranean”.

The declaration has not been followed up by Washington with any detail on how it might be brought into effect. On Wednesday, Israeli military officers presented UN officials with a plan by which Israel would tighten its control over the administration of aid supplies to Gaza, through logistical hubs in areas under military control.

The states of the Arab League are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss an Egyptian-designed alternative plan involving a phased three- to five-year reconstruction plan, beginning with the creation of temporary camps for Gazans to live while their home districts are rebuilt.

One of the key issues in contention in the “day-after” plans for Gaza, is who should be in control. Europe and the previous US administration backed an administration by a “revitalised” Palestinian Authority (PA), which currently runs part of the West Bank. But Netanyahu has insisted the PA should have no part in the governance of Gaza, and the body has little credibility among Palestinians.

“The Palestinian Authority is neither willing nor able to govern Gaza in the near future. Israeli occupation is neither possible nor desirable, and a constant state of chaos is both a security threat to Israel and an ongoing humanitarian disaster for Gaza,” Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, argued in a column in the _Haaretz_ newspaper.

He suggested Cairo be given the job.

“Egypt will take responsibility for the management of the Gaza Strip for eight years, which could be extended to 15 years,” Lapid wrote. “Gaza would be under temporary Egyptian control. During this period, Gaza would be rebuilt and the long-term conditions for independent government would be created.”
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