Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin talks on a second phase to the Gaza ceasefire in Washington on Monday, his office said hours after the completion of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange of the truce. A date for formal talks involving mediators and delegations from Hamas and Israel has not been set, with the day first phase due to end next month. Netanyahu's office said Witkoff would talk to Qatar and Egypt, key mediators, before discussing with the Israeli premier "steps to advance the negotiations, including dates for delegations to leave for talks".
The second phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war, something several members of Netanyahu's government oppose. As part of the first phase, Hamas on Saturday freed three Israeli hostages in exchange for more than Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli custody.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum hailed their release as "a ray of light in the darkness". Later in the day, a bus carrying released Palestinian prisoners was greeted by a cheering crowd in the West Bank city of Ramallah, while three other buses were met by hundreds of well-wishers in Khan Yunis. After holding the hostages for more than 15 months, militants in Gaza began releasing them on January 19 under the terms of the ceasefire deal with Israel.
Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have so far handed over 18 hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Israelis among them in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them women and children. The ceasefire's six-week first phase hinges on the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1, people, mostly Palestinians, held in Israeli jails.
Militants took a total of people hostage that day. Of those, 76 remain in Gaza, including at least 34 the military says are dead. Those seized include Bibas's wife Shiri and their two children, whom Hamas has declared dead, although Israeli officials have not confirmed that. Bibas's sons -- Kfir, the youngest hostage, whose second birthday was in January, and his older brother Ariel, whose fifth birthday was in August -- have become symbols of the hostages' ordeal.
