Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he is committed to disarming Hamas and demilitarising the Gaza Strip during a speech before the Israeli Knesset on Monday, as Palestinian officials arrived in Cairo for further peace negotiations.
In his speech, Mr Netanyahu said the current deal provided for the return of all Israeli hostages, the Israeli military’s control over the majority of Gaza’s territory and an internationally backed consensus that Hamas would be disarmed.
He said he expected to forge additional peace agreements in the region with US president Donald Trump.
The speech came just hours after the Israeli prime minister met the US Middle East envoy, and Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who flew to Israel to discuss Sunday’s breaches of the Gaza ceasefire.
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US vice-president JD Vance was expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday to further discuss the implementation of the ceasefire.
The 10-day ceasefire in Gaza was rocked on Sunday after an attack by Hamas militants that killed two Israeli soldiers, prompting Israel to launch a wave of air strikes across the strip, resulting in 44 Palestinians killed.
Hamas denied being involved in the attack.
The Israeli government initially said it would cut off all humanitarian aid to Gaza after the attack, but relented after consultations with the US. Israel’s crossings with Gaza remained open for humanitarian aid on Monday, though the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza remained closed.
The US has sought to downplay the seriousness of Sunday’s attacks, with Mr Vance saying there will be “hills and valleys” in the ceasefire process and suggesting the Hamas leadership may not have been involved with the gun battle.
“When we talk about Hamas, you’re talking about 40 different cells. It’s disjointed. Some of those cells will probably honour the ceasefire. Many of those cells, as we saw some evidence of today, will not,” Mr Vance said.
As US officials flew to Israel, a Palestinian delegation headed to Cairo for talks on how to implement the second stage of the US-drafted ceasefire plan. Khalil al-Hayya, the exiled head of Hamas, would discuss ways to form a technocratic body to run Gaza without the participation of the militant group, said a Palestinian official.
The formation of the technocratic body to oversee Gaza, as well as the demand that Hamas lay down its arms, are likely to be the two main sticking points of further talks to translate the current Gaza ceasefire into a permanent peace.
Under the 20-point plan presented by Mr Trump, Gaza is to be overseen by an international body comprising various world powers under the leadership of Mr Trump and former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Hamas is also to disarm. The militant group has objected to both parts of the peace plan, insisting that the administration that will oversee Gaza should be Palestinian-led. Hamas officials have also rejected calls to disarm.
Mr Trump has said that he received promises from Hamas that it would disarm, but that there was no definitive timeline when that would happen.
“It’s not a hard timeline, but it’s a line in my own mind. At a certain point, if they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, then we’ll have to do it for them,” he said.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel is still waiting for Hamas to turn over the remains of 15 dead hostages. Thirteen have been turned over.
Despite the ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli forces have continued to shoot Palestinians and bomb the strip. Israeli artillery targeted Deir al-Balah in Gaza and at least two Palestinians were shot dead in Gaza City on Monday. The Palestinian news agency said that Israel has violated the ceasefire 80 times and killed at least 80 people since the deal went into effect 10 days ago.
Israel has said that it has fired at individuals who have approached its troops and accused Hamas of attempting to test the limits of the ceasefire.
Israeli troops remain in control of a little over 50 per cent of the strip and are in the process of physically marking the boundaries of the “red zones” where Palestinians cannot enter. Palestinians in turn have said that they are confused about where exactly the red zones are located and at least 11 Palestinians were killed on Friday after driving past a boundary line in Gaza City.
“The whole area is in ruins. We saw the maps, but we can’t tell where those lines are,” said Samir, a 50-year-old Palestinian living in the city’s Tuffah district.
Humanitarian agencies have said that aid remains scarce across the territory. The ceasefire was meant to be accompanied by a surge in aid, but Israeli restrictions on what enters the strip have remained in place. – Guardian
