While U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his pledge to take control of Gaza, pressure grew for Israel and Hamas to extend the fragile ceasefire beyond its initial stage.
A United Nations official said famine has largely been averted, with more than 12,600 aid trucks entering the enclave since the ceasefire began. But if the truce is not extended, the threat of starvation could return, he said.
“The conditions are still terrible, and people are still hungry,” humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the Associated Press after a two-day visit to Gaza. “If the ceasefire falls, if the ceasefire breaks, then very quickly those [famine-like] conditions will come back again.”
While on Air Force One on the way to the Super Bowl, Trump told reporters he was losing patience with the situation after seeing emaciated hostages released by Hamas.
“I watched the hostages come back today and they looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors, and I don’t know how much longer we can take that,” he said.
He reiterated his pledge that the United States would take over Gaza and Palestinians would be relocated.
“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back. There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished," he said.
A new benchmark was reached Sunday in the ceasefire in Gaza, with Israeli troops withdrawing from the Netzarim corridor, a narrow strip of land that bisects the territory. It allowed more Palestinians to return to the northern sector where they once lived, but much of the land has been leveled by 15 months of fighting.
Cars heaped with belongings, including water tanks and suitcases, were seen heading north through a road that crosses the six-kilometer Netzarim. Under the truce, Israel was required to allow the cars to cross through uninspected, and there did not appear to be troops in the vicinity of the road.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the withdrawal showed Hamas had "forced the enemy to submit to our demands" and that it thwarted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu's illusion of achieving total victory."
Israeli officials did not disclose how many soldiers withdrew or to where. Troops currently remain along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt and a full withdrawal is expected to be negotiated in a later stage of the initial 42-day ceasefire that extends into early March.
Watch related report by Veronica Balderas Iglesias:
But almost no progress has been made in negotiating an extension of the truce, which is supposed to lead to the release of more hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
Netanyahu was sending a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in talks between the sides, but the mission included low-level officials. The Israeli leader is also expected to convene a meeting of key Cabinet ministers this week to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire, the extension of which is not guaranteed.
Separately on Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said that two women in their 20s, including one who was eight months’ pregnant, were fatally shot by Israeli gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a broad operation against militants.
During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The deal also stipulated that Israeli troops would pull back from populated areas of Gaza as well as the Netzarim corridor.
In the second phase, all remaining living hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a "sustainable calm." But details are unclear and yet to be negotiated.
The ceasefire pact was thrown into further turmoil last week when Trump, standing by Netanyahu at a White House news conference, called for U.S. ownership of Gaza at the end of the war and later declared that Israel would hand over the territory along the Mediterranean Sea.
Hamas, Arab nations and U.S. allies and adversaries alike condemned the proposal although Netanyahu applauded it as a potential game-changing breakthrough leading to Middle East peace. Numerous countries said they continue to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state, rather than displacement of Palestinians to neighboring countries as Trump suggested.
White House national security adviser Michael Waltz told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Trump is “asking, in a humane way, what is going to happen to these people. And everyone around the region says their heart breaks for the Palestinians, rightly so. But then come to the table with your plan if you don't like his plan.”
Netanyahu is under heavy pressure from his far-right political allies to resume the war after the first phase so that Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack on Israelis in their history, can be defeated. He is also facing pressure from Israelis who are eager to see more hostages return home and want the truce to continue, especially after the gaunt appearances of the three male captives freed Saturday stunned the nation.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the shock October 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities. Israel says the death toll includes 17,000 militants it has killed.
After Hamas, a U.S. designated terror group, freed three Israeli hostages Saturday, Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners in the latest exchange of hostages for prisoners. It was the fifth exchange since the ceasefire took effect last month.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
