Hamas Says Talks Start on Second Phase of Gaza Ceasefire Deal

A Palestinian man operates heavy machinery to open the road and remove the rubble, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
A Palestinian man operates heavy machinery to open the road and remove the rubble, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
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Hamas Says Talks Start on Second Phase of Gaza Ceasefire Deal

A Palestinian man operates heavy machinery to open the road and remove the rubble, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
A Palestinian man operates heavy machinery to open the road and remove the rubble, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

Talks have started on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the spokesperson for Hamas said on Tuesday.

The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into force on Jan. 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.

Phase two of the three-phase deal is intended to focus on agreements on the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, according to Reuters.

"Contacts and negotiation on the second phase have begun," Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said, without providing further details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said earlier on Tuesday that Israel was preparing to send a high-level delegation to the Qatari capital Doha to discuss continued implementation of the deal.

Netanyahu was due to hold talks with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the US, has remained largely intact but prospects for a durable settlement are unclear.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”