Hamas has urged the international community to exert pressure on Israel to fully commit to entering the second phase of the ceasefire “without any delay or hesitation.”
The first phase of the truce ends on Saturday, March 1, 2025, and negotiations between Israel and Hamas on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire have begun in Cairo.
The Palestinian group once again confirmed its “full commitment” to implementing all the clauses of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange with Israel.
Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Israel-Palestine with International Crisis Group, opined that it is important to “be cautious” when exercising any optimism over phase two of the ceasefire deal.
She said that Israeli Politicians have made it “very clear that they’re not interested in a phase two”, adding that the Israeli public is also “not really interested in seeing a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
Mustafa said that Hamas wants a cessation of hostilities and that is what the group is trying to push for, despite the fact “that we’ve seen over 400 Israeli violations of what had been agreed upon, at least in phase one.”
“Yet, I think we have to expect that there are going to be limitations in terms of what Hamas could put up with. It’s very clear that Israel is still trying to find any excuse to continue its current onslaught.”
Tahani Mustafa
Another Round Of Fighting Likely In Gaza
Meanwhile, Mohamad Elmasry, Political Analyst at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said that in the early days of the ceasefire, there was “some hope” that the Trump administration would pressure Israel to get to phase two of the deal.
However, as time passed, Elmasry said it became clear the US administration “is more or less giving Israel a free hand” and Trump is looking to “wash his hands” of the issue.
This, he stated, means “we are likely headed for another round of fighting.”
“Israel, for its part, has been pretty consistent … if you look at what they’ve been saying and also what they’ve been doing. They’re pretty clear that they intend to go to more war, not to phase two.”
Mohamad Elmasry
He said that his analysis of Israel’s strategy is to enter negotiations for phase two with the objective of “simply extending phase one.”
Also, Rami Khouri, a fellow at the American University of Beirut, noted that the current ceasefire uncertainty and the Israel-Palestine conflict as a whole have been shaped by “the essential need for Zionist groups and the government of Israel to assert superiority in terms of right and might in the land of Palestine and adjacent land of Lebanon and Syria and other places.”
“This kind of attitude has no logical dimensions in terms of what do they want in phase two, what do they want in phase one. All they do in every dimension of their life, in every area of the region in which they are involved is to use their military might, which is tremendous with the support of the United States, to assert their Zionist, supremacist, racist, ethno-nationalist ideology.”
Rami Khouri
Khouri noted that that ideology is reflected in the ceasefire negotiations.
He added that it shouldn’t be taken very seriously, or very literally, the specifications of the negotiations and the ceasefire deal if they extend it a couple of weeks, saying that Israel will “come up with all kinds of stuff to justify what they’re doing, but what they want to do is affirm their permanent superiority.”
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