Hamas said a new round of ceasefire talks have started Tuesday.
Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza.
Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
Israel is trying to force Hamas to accept its plan by cutting off all electricity, food, medicine and other goods to Gaza.
Elsewhere, the Israeli prime minister’s office announced Israel will release five Lebanese detainees as a “gesture” to the new Lebanese president. The release follows a meeting Tuesday in Lebanon between representatives from Israel, Lebanon, France, and the United States.
Israel said the talks focused on bringing more stability to the region after a bruising war between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, which has been paused by a ceasefire since late November. The four nations will continue meeting to discuss three major issues between Israel and Lebanon, including five locations in southern Lebanon that remain under Israeli military control, the border between Israel and Lebanon — which has never officially been determined — and the issue of Lebanese detainees held by Israel.
“Everyone involved remains committed to maintaining the ceasefire agreement and to fully implement all its terms,” said Morgan Ortagus, the deputy presidential special envoy at the State Department. According to the terms of the ceasefire, Israel must withdraw from all of Lebanon, including the five points along the border it’s still occupying. The Lebanese government and Hezbollah did not have an immediate comment.
The White House is circumspect about the prospects for a peaceful Syria after clashes erupted last week that left hundreds dead.
Monitoring groups said hundreds of civilians were killed in the clashes that broke out last week. Revenge attacks primarily targeted members of the Alawite religious minority to which ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad belongs.
White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said Tuesday that the attacks on religious minorities have raised concerns in the administration “about whether Syria’s interim governing authorities are ready to include a religiously and ethnically diverse population, and whether the interim authorities even have the legitimacy to do so.”
Syria’s interim government signed a deal Monday with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main U.S.-backed force there into the Syrian army.
“Achieving a resolution at the negotiating table is preferable to achieving it on the battlefield and the United States will continue to watch Syria and the decisions its leaders make,” Hewitt added.
An Israeli defense minister visited a strategic mountain in Syria and said his military is watching.
He warned Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa that Israel “is watching him from the heights of Mount Hermon,” which Israeli forces captured as part of a buffer zone inside Syria last year, and said Israel struck 40 military targets overnight in southern Syria.
Israel plans to allow members of the Druze minority from Syria to work in Israeli-controlled parts of the Golan Heights as soon as the coming week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Tuesday issued from Mount Hermon. He stressed that Israel plans to remain in the Syrian buffer zone for an “indefinite period” to ensure that southern Syria remains demilitarized and does not pose a threat to residents of Israel or the Golan Heights.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi terrorists said Tuesday they are again banning Israeli vessels from the waters off Yemen.=
Although no attacks were reported, the warning has put shippers on edge. The terrorists targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors.
This time, the Yemeni terrorists only mentioned targeting Israeli ships. Before the ceasefire in Gaza, the Houthis had said they attacked ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked had little or no connection to the conflict.
