Prisoners still central to negotiations. According to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, intensive contacts were held on 25th February between mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar to resolve the crisis over the release of Palestinian prisoners whose release has been postponed.
According to the report, the aim is to formulate agreements on the prisoners who were due to be released on Saturday. The reports also said that Egypt was trying to make ‘adjustments’ to the number of people to be released in exchange for handing over two or three dead Israeli prisoners.
Sources involved in the negotiations said mediators were close to reaching a formula that would see the bodies handed over without ‘ceremony’. It would also be a ‘prelude’ to further operations during the ‘interim period’ leading up to the second phase. In this context, Egypt and Qatar warned of the consequences of the violations attributed to Israel.
Egyptian officials spoke to their American counterparts and warned of the ‘danger of a return to fighting’. They stressed that such a scenario would ‘destroy everything that has been agreed in recent weeks’. It is also claimed that Hamas is capable of responding to Israeli violations in a way that would be catastrophic for both sides.
The families of the abductees met with the coordinator of the file on prisoners and missing persons, Gal Hirsch, and heard for the first time from a senior official that Israel is trying to implement the agreement.
The negotiations are also divided over the future of Gaza: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates want Hamas to disarm, while Egypt and Qatar are opposed. Israel wants to extend the Gaza truce for another 42 days, without discussing an end to the war at this stage.
On the home front, the Maariv news agency reports that Netanyahu is refusing to hand over his medical records to the court in a lawsuit brought by journalists over allegations that he is not in good health. The court has threatened to issue a court order against Netanyahu within two and a half weeks if he does not hand over his medical records.
The Yedioth Ahronoth news agency reports that delegations of Israeli leaders are in America to advance steps towards the annexation of the West Bank, with Trump’s strong support. The security establishment is preparing to hold a series of meetings to discuss the issue of the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz met with US Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Michael Eric Kurilla in Tel Aviv. US envoy Stephen Witkoff arrives in Israel today amid tensions in negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
Rebuilding the health system in Gaza will cost at least seven billion dollars, the World Health Organisation’s spokesman for the Palestinian territories, Rick Peperkorn, told a briefing in Geneva.
Tensions between Lebanon and Israel rise. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reads the ministerial statement: ‘The government stresses the fulfilment of its commitments, especially with regard to the implementation of Resolution 1701 without any bias or selection. We are committed to protecting the freedoms, security and fundamental rights of the Lebanese people, and the government will strive to be worthy of its name, the ‘Government of Salvation and Reform’. The government pledges to take all necessary measures, in accordance with the Taif Accord document, to liberate Lebanese lands from Israeli occupation, to extend state sovereignty over all its lands exclusively with its own forces, and to deploy the army in the southern border areas.
Nawaf Salam told a press conference: ‘The government reaffirms Lebanon’s right to self-defence in case of attack and the state’s duty to monopolise the transport of weapons.
And now a look at Israel’s open military scenarios, updated at 14:00 on 25 February Israel has given mixed messages about its presence in the Golan. Through intermediaries, it has made it clear to the Turkish and Syrian authorities that it does not intend to remain permanently in the buffer zone. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to say: ‘We will remain in southern Syria for the foreseeable future.
On 25 February, sirens were sounded over the Golan for suspected rocket launches. It later turned out to be a false alarm of suspected drone infiltration. Sirens were also sounded in Yonatan and Ramat Magshimim in the Golan for fear of infiltration.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said: ‘We arrested two suspects near the border after they entered Israel from Jordan. Israeli forces discovered footprints near the border in the Dead Sea area. Security forces are currently conducting searches in the area to ensure that no infiltration has taken place.
Israeli drone strikes continue in Lebanon. On the night of 25 February, an Israeli drone struck the town of Janta, presumably targeting members of Hezbollah. Janta is in the far north-east of Lebanon and is not covered by Resolution 1701. According to journalist Amichai Stein: In ‘Israel’ they estimate that ‘sooner or later’ Hezbollah will try to attack Israeli army positions in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah will wait ‘for a certain period of time’ and give diplomacy a chance. Low-flying Israeli aircraft in and around the Al-Zahrani area and again around the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.
Gunfire from Israeli vehicles northeast of the Bureij camp in central Gaza, recorded on the evening of 24 Feb. Bombings resumed in the late morning of 25 Feb. And more gunfire from Israeli tanks south of the town of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, on the morning of 25 February. Shelling from Israeli vehicles east of the town of Abasan Al Kabira, east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The IDF has raised the alert on the southern border and is preparing to deploy reserve brigades in a renewed ground operation in Gaza, while Hamas is also militarily strengthening its control on the ground. Hamas moved thousands of fighters from southern Gaza to the north as the Israeli army withdrew from the Netzarim corridor.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas continued in Jenin and Tubas. PA forces surrounded a house in the Al-Deir neighbourhood in the town of Tubas. IDF incursions were recorded at the Imam Ali Mosque near the Western Cemetery in Nablus. On the night of 25 February, the IDF attacked the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.
The IDF stormed the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, and the village of Kafr Al-Labad, east of Tulkarem. Finally, according to Yedioth Ahronoth: The army recommended that displaced Palestinians not be forced to return to camps in the West Bank.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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