Palestinian youths hang decorations ahead of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. AFP
The Gaza ceasefire took effect on January 19 after over 15 months of the Israeli genocidal war on the strip.
Over the initial six-week phase, Hamas and other Palestinian factions freed 25 living captives and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
A second phase of the fragile truce was supposed to secure the release of dozens of captives still in Gaza and pave the way for a more permanent end to the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sent a delegation to Cairo, and mediator Egypt said "intensive talks" on the second phase had begun with the presence of delegations from Israel and fellow mediators Qatar and the United States.
But by early Saturday, there was no sign of consensus, and Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the group rejected "the extension of the first phase in the formulation proposed by the occupation (Israel)".
He called on mediators "to oblige the occupation to abide by the agreement in its various stages".
Max Rodenbeck, of the International Crisis Group think tank, said the second phase cannot be expected to start immediately.
"But I think the ceasefire probably won't collapse also," he said.
Ceasefire 'must hold'
The preferred Israeli scenario is to free more captives under an extension of the first phase rather than a second phase, Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
A Palestinian source close to the talks told AFP that Israel had proposed to extend the first phase in successive one-week intervals to conduct captive-prisoner swaps each week, adding that Hamas had rejected the plan.
Of the 251 captives seized during Hamas's attack, 58 are still held in Gaza.
Hamas, for its part, has pushed hard for phase two to begin.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire "must hold".
"The coming days are critical. The parties must spare no effort to avoid a breakdown of this deal," Guterres said in New York.
The truce enabled greater aid flows into the Gaza Strip, where more than 69 percent of buildings were damaged or destroyed, almost the entire population was displaced, and widespread hunger occurred because of the war, according to the United Nations.
'Nothing but God's mercy'
In Gaza and throughout much of the Muslim world, Saturday also marked the first day of the month of Ramadan, during which the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast.
Among the rubble of Gaza's war-wrecked neighbourhoods, traditional Ramadan lanterns hung and people performed nightly prayers on the eve of the holy month.
"Ramadan has come this year, and we are on the streets with no shelter, no work, no money, nothing," said Ali Rajih, a resident of the hard-hit Jabalia camp in north Gaza.
"My eight children and I are homeless, we're living on the streets of Jabalia camp, with nothing but God's mercy."
Though the truce has effectively held, there have been a number of Israeli strikes.
On Friday, the military said it targeted two "suspects" approaching troops in southern Gaza, where a hospital said it had received the body of one person killed in a strike.
In return for the release of the captives held in Gaza, Israel released nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from its jails. Gaza militants also released five Thai captives outside the truce deal's terms.
The United States on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $3 billion in munitions, bulldozers and related equipment to ally Israel.
It comes amid a major military operation launched by Israel in the occupied West Bank on 21 February, two days after the Gaza ceasefire began.
As part of the operation, the military has razed many homes, and an AFP journalist on Saturday saw an Israeli excavator destroying a home in the largely vacant Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
According to the UN, at least 55 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have died in the operation, which has displaced over 40,000 Palestinians.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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