Hamas Opens Cairo Talks With Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye To Implement Gaza Ceasefire Second Phase

Palestinian factions and mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye resumed talks in Cairo on Sunday for a second day of consultations aimed at advancing the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement amid continued Israeli violations, according to media reports.

Citing unnamed sources, Egypt’s Cairo News TV reported that representatives of Palestinian factions and mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye “began a new round of meetings in Cairo aimed at discussing ways to implement the second phase of the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement.”

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Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the Palestinian group had begun meetings in Cairo with mediators and factions to complete the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and arrange the second phase, focusing on ending Israeli violations and securing humanitarian aid access.

The first phase of the ceasefire agreement included a truce and prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian factions, while Palestinian sources say Israel has continued to violate the agreement on a near-daily basis.

Under the second phase, Israel is expected to carry out further withdrawals from the territory while an international stabilisation force would assume security responsibilities, including facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials.

While ceasefire talks continued, the Civil Defense in Gaza announced that 13 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes targeting scattered sites across the enclave, including eight killed in an attack on a police car.

The Civil Defense said that the airstrike targeting a police car in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis killed eight people, including a child, and the interior ministry in the enclave said two of the dead were police officers.

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In a separate incident, a woman and her two children were killed by Israeli artillery shelling that targeted homes near Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, and in a third attack an Israeli aircraft targeted another police car in the city of Gaza, killing two people and injuring two others.

At Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Al-Qatassi, whose brother was killed in the strikes, told Agence France-Presse: "The war has never stopped… This is not justice."

The Israeli army later issued a brief statement saying: "To remove this threat, the militants were killed in an airstrike."

UNICEF said at least 100 children have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the entry into force of the highly fragile ceasefire with Israel in October, and Gaza’s Health Ministry reported a figure of 165 children.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, speaking from Gaza, said: "More than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began in October."

Elder added that the children were killed by airstrikes, drone strikes, including kamikaze drones, and by tank fire and real bullets, while he warned that psychological trauma remains untreated and the longer it lasts the harder it becomes to heal.

The UNICEF report also cited Zaher Al-Wahidi, director of the Health Ministry's IT department, who told Agence France-Presse that seven children have died of hypothermia since the start of the year.

The truce remains very precarious, with Hamas and Israel muttering mutual accusations of violations, and the Gaza Health Ministry said that since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, at least 425 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks.