U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel on Wednesday for talks focusing on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as well as negotiations on the next phase of the agreement.
Before his visit, Witkoff emphasized the need for full implementation of the agreement, which ended 15 months of fighting and led to the release, so far, of seven hostages held by Hamas and 300 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Further releases of hostages and prisoners are expected in the coming days.
Witkoff’s visit comes ahead of an anticipated trip to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. U.S. President Donald Trump invited Netanyahu for talks on February 4.
The first phase of the ceasefire is expected to last 42 days, a quarter of which has already passed. It includes the release of 33 hostages from Gaza and the continuation of negotiations on the details of the second phase of the agreement, which involves further hostages’ release and the conclusion of the war with the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Negotiations on this phase are set to begin next week.
Palestinians in Gaza have been allowed to return to some areas that had been long-blocked by Israeli forces, including the northern part of Gaza, where the United Nations reported on Tuesday that over 375,000 people had returned this week.
Approximately one million Gaza residents fled the area at the beginning of the war, and displaced people are now returning to a region devastated by Israeli military operations against Hamas.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the United Nations will also facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The UN’s humanitarian office announced on Tuesday that the amount of aid being delivered to Gaza has “expanded significantly,” including to areas where aid workers had previously been unable to reach.
“Field assessments indicate a high level of damage to water and sewage infrastructure, particularly in northern Gaza, highlighting the critical need to increase efforts to rehabilitate and clear these systems to meet basic human needs,” the agency stated.
The reconstruction of Gaza is part of the final phase of the ceasefire agreement, although it remains unclear who will govern the territory, which has been controlled by Hamas since 2007.
During a phone call on Tuesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed the need for cooperation “on planning for the post-conflict phase to ensure that Hamas will never again govern Gaza, nor will it be able to threaten Israel again,” according to a U.S. State Department statement.
The U.S., Egypt, and Qatar were key mediators in the negotiations over the past few months that secured the ceasefire agreement.
In recent days, President Trump’s repeated suggestions to forcibly relocate a large number of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan have been criticized.
Palestinians and Arab states, including Egypt and Jordan, opposed Trump’s idea of accepting Palestinians, citing concerns that their relocation could become permanent.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, following a terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 250 hostages.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has led to at least 47,300 deaths, the majority of which are women and children, according to health officials. The Israeli military claims this figure includes 17,000 militants killed. /VOA
