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23-12-2025
GAZA STRIP: Israel’s repeated violations of the Gaza ceasefire agreement are “creating major risks for transitioning to the second phase”, Turkiye’s foreign minister has said, as he joined diplomats from the United States, Egypt and Qatar in the US city of Miami to review the first phase of the agreement reached in October.
“The ongoing violations by Israel, in particular, are making the process incredibly more difficult. What we see is that all parties are in agreement on this issue, and we also had various discussions on how to prevent this,” Hakan Fidan told Turkish state news agency Anadolu, adding that the ceasefire violations by Israel are “endangering the peace plan” put forth by US President Donald Trump.
Senior officials from the four mediator countries met Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Friday to review the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on October 10, according to a joint statement released on Saturday.
A statement issued by Witkoff after the Miami talks said the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye urged the parties to the Gaza ceasefire to honor their commitments and show restraint.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of ongoing Israeli attacks on the enclave. Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement more than 730 times since October, through the continuation of attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
In its latest attack, Israel hit a school housing displaced people, killing six people on Friday, raising the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the deal took effect to about 400.
“We reaffirm our full commitment to the entirety of the President’s 20-point peace plan and call on all parties to uphold their obligations, exercise restraint, and cooperate with monitoring arrangements,” Witkoff said in a statement posted on social media.
The top Turkish diplomat’s statement comes days after Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani warned that near-daily Israeli breaches of the ceasefire were threatening the entire agreement.
Sheikh Mohammed, who met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, also called for urgent progress towards the next phase of the deal to end Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Saturday’s statement cited progress achieved in the first stage of the peace agreement, including expanded humanitarian assistance, the return of captives’ bodies, partial force withdrawals and a reduction in hostilities.
It called for “the near-term establishment and operationalization” of a transitional administration, which is due to happen in the second phase of the agreement, and said consultations would continue in the coming weeks over its implementation.
Fidan, the Turkish minister, also described the meeting as promising.
“Now, since the first phase has been completed following the release of the last hostage, the parameters for moving to the second phase are being discussed. Perhaps after Sharm el-Sheikh, yesterday’s meeting was the most important one. Frankly, we continued our meetings in various formats and settings until late last night,” Anadolu quoted him as saying.
Under the truce terms, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
On Friday, Rubio expressed hope that countries would contribute troops for the stabilization force, but also urged the disarmament of Hamas, warning the process would unravel unless that happened. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
