While the first phase of the ceasefire in force since January 19 expires on Saturday March 1, Washington has suggested Tuesday evening an imminent recovery of talks between Israel and Hamas for a second phase. “We are making a lot of progress. Israel sends a team (of negotiators) as we are talking about,” said US President Donald Trump for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff on Tuesday evening in Washington.
Negotiations have so far not started, letting fear of a resumption of hostilities. The second phase of the ceasefire is supposed to end the war definitively, to which the Israeli far right ally of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu opposes, threatening the survival of his government. Hamas said he was ready to release “in one time” all the remaining hostages during this second phase.
Info to remember
⇒ Israel pays a final tribute to the Bibas family
⇒ An agreement reached to exchange Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of four Israeli hostages
⇒ Israel strikes southern Syria
Israel pays a final tribute to the Bibas family
The Israeli Parliament observed a minute of silence this Wednesday morning in memory of the Bibas family and the other victims of October 7. Israel is preparing to deliver a last tribute to Shiri Bibas and his two KFIR and Ariel boys, who died in captivity in Gaza and become the symbol of the hostage tragedy, today. The remains of the mother and her sons, aged eight and a half months and four years at the time of their abduction in their Kibbutz of Nir Oz, were returned to Israel last week by Hamas as part of the ceasefire The fever in the Gaza Strip.
Given the support brands “from all Israel and around the world”, the itinerary of the funeral procession has been made public “to allow all those who want to support our dear beings,” announced Yarden Bibas , the father now widowed, and his sister-in-law Dana Siton Silberman. The funeral of the young mother and her children, aged four and eight and a half months at the time of their kidnapping, must take place in family intimacy in Zohar, near the Gaza Strip.
Tuesday, hundreds of people, including President Isaac Herzog, participated in the funeral of Oded Lifshitz, a pacifist activist and former journalist taken hostage by Hamas during the attack on October 7, died in captivity and whose body has also returned last week. “We have fought all these years for social justice and peace. Unfortunately, we have received a terrible blow from those we helped on the other side,” said his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, removed at the same time as him In the Kibbutz Nir Oz and released a few weeks later.
Agreement between Israel and Hamas to exchange Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of four Israeli hostages
Mediators in the conflict between Israel and Hamas have managed, under the supervision of Cairo, to obtain an agreement for the release of Palestinian prisoners who were to be released on Saturday in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli hostages. The Palestinian Islamist organization confirmed this agreement on Telegram, adding that it is part of the first phase of the ceasefire concluded with Israel.
These releases should have taken place on February 22, when Hamas had released six Israelis on the occasion of what was to be the seventh exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. But the Islamist organization had again staged these releases, exhibiting five hostages on podiums in front of the crowd, in front of large posters paying tribute to the fighters of Hamas killed before handing them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Israel then canceled the release of the 620 Palestinians, demanding the end of “humiliating ceremonies”.
In response to the suspension of the prisoners’ release, Hamas had accused Israel of “seriously putting the entire truce agreement into danger”, and called mediator to intervene.
Israel strikes southern Syria
The Israeli army announced that it has conducted air strikes on Tuesday targeting military sites sheltering weapons in southern Syria, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory (OSDH), for its part, “at least two dead “near the capital Damascus. “The presence of forces and military assets in southern Syria constitutes a threat to the citizens of Israel,” the army said in a statement, without specifying the exact places of the strikes, announcing that it will continue to act in order to eliminate any threat to citizens of the State of Israel. “
These strikes occurred after the Israeli Prime Minister said on Sunday that southern Syria should be completely demilitarized. Benyamin Netanyahu warned that Israel will not tolerate the presence of the forces of the new Syrian government led by the Islamists near its territory.