Israel’s parliamentary foreign affairs and defence committee was told on Monday that US president Donald Trump intends to move to phase two of the Gaza ceasefire this month.
Israel had said it would only agree to such a scenario after the remains of the last hostage held in Gaza have been returned by Hamas for burial.
Hamas and Red Cross officials were searching for the remains of police officer Ran Gvili in Gaza City on Monday. But Washington appears determined to progress to the next stage of the ceasefire even if he is not located.
Israel retained control of 53 per cent of Gaza under the first phase of Mr Trump’s plan. Israel is to pull back further in the second phase as a transitional authority is established in Gaza and an international stabilisation force (ISF) is deployed, Hamas is disarmed, and reconstruction begins.
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Speaking on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Mr Trump on December 29th during a week-long trip to the US, reiterated that Hamas must disarm and expressed doubts over whether the ISF will be able to carry out the task.
“In the second phase, we are moving to disarmament and demilitarisation. We can do it the easy way, or the hard way,” he said, “but in the end it will be done.”
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Hamas representatives have said the group will not relinquish its weapons but Hamas official Bassem Naim indicated that it is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal as a possible solution.
Another senior Hamas official, Husam Badran, said the group is prepared to allow a committee of Palestinian technocrats to administer Gaza, warning that “chaos would be the result of leaving behind a power vacuum”.
International mediators suspect that Mr Netanyahu is reluctant to move to the next stage of the ceasefire, which is viewed by his right-wing coalition partners as a stepping stone to Palestinian statehood and the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza.
Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told a diplomatic conference in Doha over the weekend that the Gaza ceasefire is at a critical moment.
“A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, there is stability back in Gaza, and people can go in and out, which is not the case today,” he said.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said that a Palestinian civil administration and a vetted, trained police force needed to be in place in the Strip before Hamas could disarm.
Meanwhile, Israel has dismissed as “absurd” a report in the British Guardian newspaper that it conducted widespread surveillance of US forces and allies stationed at the US base in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat, set up to co-ordinate the Gaza ceasefire.
