Palestinians walk past the rubble of buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold consultations with security chiefs and ministers on Friday after an Israeli delegation returned from Cairo with no agreement on extending the Gaza ceasefire, two Israeli officials said.

A Hamas official confirmed that Israel had sought to extend the 42-day truce agreed as a first stage in the ceasefire agreement through the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins this weekend. But he said Hamas wanted to move on to negotiations over the second stage, opening the way to a permanent end to the war.

“We are committed to the agreement,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators asked for some time over the next few days to resolve the impasse over the ceasefire, which is due to expire on Saturday, the officials said.

The agreement reached last month halted 15 months of fighting, allowing the exchange of 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and was meant to lead to subsequent talks to build on the truce.

Israeli officials have previously said Israel was ready to resume fighting in Gaza if all its remaining hostages are not returned.

However, Israel and Hamas remain far apart on key issues and each has accused the other of violating the ceasefire, casting doubt over the second phase of the deal meant to include releases of additional hostages and prisoners as well as steps toward a permanent end of the war.

There is no sign of agreement, either among or between Israelis and Palestinians, or between Western and Arab governments, over Gaza’s future. That uncertainty is complicating efforts to negotiate a lasting resolution.

Hamas called on Friday for the international community to press Israel to immediately enter the second phase without delay. It is unclear what will happen if the first phase ends on Saturday without a deal.

A senior official of the Palestinian Authority, State Minister of Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian, also said on Friday that she would like the ceasefire phases to move ahead as originally planned.

“I doubt anyone in Gaza will want to go back to war,” she said in Geneva.

The Cairo talks are being mediated by Egypt and Qatar with U.S. support. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday there were “pretty good talks going on.”

Asked whether the ceasefire deal would move into the second phase, Trump said: “Nobody really knows, but we’ll see what happens.”

The Gaza war is the latest confrontation in decades of conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

It began on Oct. 7, 2023, when fighters from the Islamist group Hamas stormed border defenses from Gaza and attacked Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.

CEASEFIRE

The ceasefire has mostly held during its first six weeks, although both sides have accused each other of breaches, particularly in the treatment of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees, and in the handling of releases.

Hamas has staged shows of strength during hostage releases, parading them in front of cameras. Israeli authorities have made released detainees wear clothes bearing pro-Israeli slogans.

Israel is now negotiating to extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal by 42 days, according to the Egyptian security sources.

Israeli government officials said earlier this week that Israel would attempt to extend the initial phase with Hamas freeing three hostages a week in return for the release of Palestinian detainees.

Discussions on an end to the war are complicated by the lack of any agreement over basic questions such as how Gaza would be governed, how its security would be managed, how it could be rebuilt, and who would pay for that.

Trump proposed this month that the US should take over Gaza and redevelop it as a “Riviera of the Middle East” with its population displaced into Egypt and Jordan.

Arab countries have rejected that idea but have yet to announce their own plan.

European countries have also rejected the displacement of Palestinians and say they still support a two-state solution to the conflict.

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Rescuers and medical workers evacuate a person from a hospital hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine March 1, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

Russian drones struck a medical facility and other targets late on Friday in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, wounding at least seven people, local officials said.

Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said nine Russian drones had attacked civilian areas in three central districts of the city, a frequent target of Russian attacks in the three-year-old war.

Seven people were injured, he said, and more than 50 people were evacuated from the medical facility as emergency crews brought under control a fire triggered by the strike.

Dozens of buildings were damaged, Syniehubov added, with windows shattered in an apartment building, a car dealership and a hypermarket.

“World leaders speak of peace, but Russia’s actions make its intentions clear,” Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, wrote on X after the strike. “It does not negotiate; it destroys.”

Russia has denied targeting civilians but regularly attacks towns and cities far behind the front line of its invasion.

In the Black Sea region of Odesa, another frequent Russian target in southern Ukraine, a drone attack killed one person and wounded three others.

The post Russian Drone Strike Hits Medical Facility, Other Targets in Kharkiv first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Israeli military jeeps maneuver in Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, Feb. 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Hamas said on Saturday that it rejected Israel’s “formulation” of extending the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, on the day the first stage of the deal was set to expire.

The group’s spokesperson Hazem Qassem also told Al-Araby TV there were no current talks for a second ceasefire phase in Gaza with the group.

The post Hamas Rejects Israel’s ‘Formulation’ of Extending First Gaza Ceasefire Phase first appeared on Algemeiner.com.