With the clock running down on the first phase of the cease-fire in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent an Israeli delegation to Cairo on Thursday to hold further talks on extending the truce.
But even though the initial stage of the truce is set to elapse on Saturday night, Israel and Hamas appear to have made little progress on forging terms for a comprehensive cease-fire. It was not clear on Thursday whether the Israeli delegation was playing for time or had a serious mandate to bridge the yawning gaps between the two sides.
The uncertainty has left both Israelis and Palestinians in limbo about the fate of more hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and whether fighting could soon restart.
“Our only hope is that the cease-fire continues,” said Shamekh al-Dibs, a 36-year-old living in a school-turned-shelter since his home in northern Gaza was destroyed.
For now, the first six-week phase of the cease-fire is set to conclude without a clear framework to take its place. That does not necessarily mean an immediate return to war: The agreement says the truce can continue as long as negotiators are working on the next steps. But it makes the already fragile deal more precarious.
Israeli government officials did not provide details about the delegation’s trip to Cairo, and extending the deal would entails tackling much thornier issues than hostage and prisoner releases, such as a permanent end to the war and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Under the terms of the phased agreement, Israel would effectively have to declare an end to its war against Hamas in order to secure the release of some two dozen hostages believed to still be alive.
For the families of Israeli captives, the prospect of their loved ones’ release is both closer than ever before and agonizingly distant. They are well aware that formidable obstacles remain to securing their freedom given the lack of an agreement on the future of the deal.
“By Sunday, we’ll be in no man’s land,” said Adi Alexander, whose American-Israeli son, Edan Alexander, has been held in Gaza for more than 500 days. “It was left blurry on purpose, and it’s still blurry,” he said of this element of the cease-fire agreement.
Israel and Hamas did not sign off on an immediate end to the war in mid-January. Instead, they committed to a complex, multiphase plan meant to slowly build momentum toward a comprehensive cease-fire after more than a year of devastating fighting in Gaza.
The first stage was intended to stop the fighting while the two sides hashed out a larger settlement.
Hamas released 30 Israeli and foreign hostages and handed over the bodies of eight more in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel. It was a rocky process, involving staged hostage transfers that Israel described as humiliating, and that almost derailed the entire deal.
Israel and Hamas remain as distant as ever on their core demands.
Israel has vowed it will not end the war permanently until Hamas is no longer in control of Gaza and the territory is demilitarized. Hamas has mostly refused to consider disbanding its armed battalions or sending its leaders into exile.
Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, has floated the idea of extending the first phase by continuing to swap hostages for prisoners.
On Thursday, Abdel-Latif al-Qanou, a Hamas spokesman, said the group was open to extending the first phase as long as it did not entail giving up on Hamas’s core demands, including an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces. He said Israel had dragged its feet on opening negotiations for the second phase.
Mr. Netanyahu faces considerable pressure from within his own government not to conclusively end the war. His political allies say they want to keep fighting Hamas and build Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Under the cease-fire agreement, Israel is set to begin withdrawing forces from Gaza’s border with Egypt over the weekend. But Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he views Israeli control of the area as a core security interest.
Both Israel and Hamas have reasons to avoid a resumption of the war.
Hamas wants to give its forces a chance to recuperate and begin rebuilding Gaza. Israel wants to bring home the remaining hostages. Of the roughly 250 taken during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli government believes about 25 are still alive. Israel also wants to recover the bodies of roughly 30 others.
But the prospect of renewed fighting has never really gone away. Many Israelis, particularly on the right, say they cannot countenance ending the war with Hamas still ruling Gaza. For now, Hamas appears to have given little ground on the question.
Mr. Alexander, whose son was abducted from an Israeli military post, said he was optimistic the truce could hold.
“Nobody wants this war to restart again — not Israel, not the United States. I definitely don’t think Hamas wants it,” he said.
But the Israeli government should “put the hostages up front, let this country heal, and think about Hamas later,” he added.
