\u2022 Netanyahu dispatches negotiators to Cairo
\n\u2022 FM says delegation will look into extending truce<\/p>\n
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched ne\u00ad\u00adgotiators to Cairo on Thu\u00adrsday after Hamas han\u00added over the remains of four prisoners in exch\u00adan\u00ad\u00adge for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n
The overnight swap was the final stage of an initial deal under the fragile truce that took effect on January 19, largely halting more than 15 months of war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Under the first phase which expires on Satur\u00add\u00aday, Hamas freed 25 living Israeli and dual-national prisoners and returned the bodies of eight others.<\/p>\n
It also released five Thai prisoners outside the deal\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n
Israel, in return, was ex\u00adpected to free around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n
Hamas officials told AFP that Israel had freed about 1,700 so far.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Prison Service confirmed that 643 Pal\u00ade\u00adstinians were transferred from several prisons across the country and released under the terms of the truce deal after Hamas handed over the bodies of four prisoners.<\/p>\n
AFP journalists saw hu\u00ad\u00adndreds of prisoners being released early Thursday in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Egy\u00adpt\u2019s state-linked Al-Qahera News said 97, marked for deportation by Israel, had arrived at Gaza\u2019s Rafah crossing.<\/p>\n
The prisoners freed on Thursday were meant to be released last weekend but Israel delayed the process after Hamas staged elaborate handover ceremonies.<\/p>\n
Hamas said Thursday\u2019s handover would take place in private \u201cto prevent the occupation from finding any pretext for delay\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Ramallah, several freed Palestinians were lifted onto shoulders. A group of women wept around one released prisoner, and a child held aloft flashed victory signs with both hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in hell and we came out of hell. Today is my real day of birth,\u201d said one prisoner, Yahya Shraideh.<\/p>\n
Hours after the handover, an Israeli campaign group confirmed \u201cwith profound sorrow\u201d the ide\u00adntities of the four bodies Hamas returned on Thu\u00adrsday.<\/p>\n
Ohad Yahalomi, Tsachi Idan, Itzik Elgarat and Shlomo Mansour \u201chave been laid to eternal rest in Israel\u201d, said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu pledged on Thursday to work \u201crelentlessly\u201d to bring back all the prisoners.<\/p>\n
President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday that Israel had a \u201cmoral obligation\u201d to sec\u00adure the prisoners\u2019 return.<\/p>\n
Negotiations<\/p>\n
After the swap, Hamas called on Israel to return to delayed talks on a second phase of the deal, intended to lead to a permanent end to the war. \u201cWe have cut off the path before the enemy\u2019s false justifications, and it has no choice but to start negotiations for the second phase,\u201d Hamas said.<\/p>\n
Later on Thursday, Netanyahu\u2019s office said he instructed Israeli negotiators to head to Cairo for the Gaza talks.<\/p>\n
Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters in Jerusalem the delegation would travel to Egypt to see whether there was common ground to negotiate an extension to the truce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said we are ready to make the framework longer in return to release more prisoners. If it is possible, we\u2019ll do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two government offici\u00adals told Reuters that Israel was seeking to extend the initial phase, with Hamas freeing three prisoners each week in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.<\/p>\n
In Washington, US President Donald Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy said Israeli representatives were en route to talks on the next phase of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making a lot of progress. Israel is sending a team right now as we speak,\u201d Steve Witkoff said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2022 Netanyahu dispatches negotiators to Cairo \u2022 FM says delegation will look into extending truce JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched ne\u00ad\u00adgotiators to Cairo on Thu\u00adrsday after Hamas han\u00added over the remains of four prisoners in exch\u00adan\u00ad\u00adge for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The overnight swap was the final stage of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6072,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070\/revisions\/6072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}