UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal “must hold”, with just hours to go before an initial phase expires.
His comments came after Palestinian resistance group Hamas called for international pressure on Israel to enter the next phase of the ceasefire, as negotiations were resuming in Cairo.
The truce’s first phase is due to expire Saturday morning, after largely halting more than 15 months of bombardment and fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
“The ceasefire and hostage release deal must hold. The coming days are critical. The parties must spare no effort to avoid a breakdown of this deal,” Guterres said in New York.
The truce led to the exchange of hostages held by Hamas in return for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. It also enabled greater aid flows into the territory, where more than 69 percent of buildings were damaged or destroyed, almost the entire population was displaced, and widespread hunger occurred because of the war, according to the United Nations.
But talks on a second phase had been delayed.
They were supposed to begin 16 days into the first stage, and an analyst, Max Rodenbeck, of the International Crisis Group think tank, said the second phase — aiming to bring a permanent end to the war — cannot be expected to start on Saturday.
“But I think the ceasefire probably won’t collapse also,” he said.
The preferred Israeli scenario is to free more hostages under an extension of the first phase, rather than a second phase, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Thursday.
Hamas said in a statement that “with the end of the first phase of the ceasefire”, the group “affirms its full commitment to implementing all the provisions of the agreement in all its stages and details”.
The group called for global pressure on Israel “to immediately enter the second phase of the agreement without any delay”.
The State Information Service of mediator Egypt said in a statement on Thursday: “The relevant parties have begun intensive talks to discuss the next phases of the truce agreement, amid ongoing efforts to ensure the implementation of the previously agreed understandings”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday “instructed the negotiation delegation to depart for Cairo”, his office said shortly after Hamas handed over the remains of Tsachi Idan and three other hostages under the truce, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.