Gaza hostage deal: Netanyahu orders Israeli team to head to Cairo for ceasefire talks - Amichai Stein

 

by Amichai Stein

Sources to 'Post': Witkoff suggested 'new ideas' to advance deal • Hamas 'unlikely' to agree to earlier release of more hostages

 

Israleis protest for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, February 15, 2025

(photo credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

Israel will send a working-group delegation to Cairo on Monday to hold talks on the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, the Prime Minister’s Office disclosed on Sunday.

The delegation will be headed by the Coordinator for Hostages and the Missing, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, and ‘M,’ a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) official.

The team will discuss the implementation of the hostage deal’s first phase, in which the six remaining living hostages are expected to be released.

The decision to send a delegation followed a phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. Witkoff also spoke on Sunday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and Maj.-Gen. Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, head of the Egyptian intelligence agency.

Witkoff suggested “new ideas” to advance the hostage deal in his Sunday conversations, sources with knowledge of the phone calls told The Jerusalem Post.

STEVE WITKOFF delivers an address at the presidential inaugural parade in Washington on January 20. He deserves congratulations from all of us in Israel on successfully completing a hostage-ceasefire deal before starting his role as Middle East envoy for US President Donald Trump, says the writer. (credit: Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Phase two is more complicated 

Earlier on Sunday, Witkoff told Fox News, “Phase two is more complicated than phase one, but it will definitely begin... We discussed the timing of phase two and the positions of the parties so that we can understand where we stand.”

The Israeli security cabinet will convene on Monday to discuss phase two of the deal, the Prime Minister’s Office stated. “Following Monday’s security cabinet discussion, the team in Cairo will receive instructions for the continuation of negotiations regarding the second stage of the hostage deal.”

Israeli and US officials have been working in recent days to shorten the period during which phase one hostages will be released and to try to add more hostages to be released in this stage, in addition to the original number that stood at 33.

Two sources told the Post that mediators do not believe Hamas will agree to change the deal. “Even if some kind of new Israeli leverage comes up, it’s hard to see that happening. It’s not impossible, but it’s not going to be easy.”

Amichai Stein

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-842373

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