Israel to begin talks on Gaza ceasefire deal 2nd phase

During his press briefing earlier today, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel will begin negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal this week, The Guardian writes.

“We had yesterday night a security cabinet meeting. We decided to open negotiations on the second phase. It will happen this week,” Saar said of the talks, which were originally supposed to start on Feb. 3.

Negotiations on a second phase of the agreement, which mediators had hoped would agree the release of the remaining hostages as well as the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, were supposed to be already underway in Doha, but Qatar has said the talks have not officially started yet.

Saar also said that Israel demanded the “complete demilitarization of Gaza”, and would “not accept the continued presence of Hamas or any other terrorist groups” in the Palestinian territory.