American shipping in Qatar to join the conversations about the extension of the high fire

The envoy of the White House, Steve Witkoff, is in Qatar to join indirect conversations between Israel and Hamas to extend the fragile high fire in Gaza.

This week, the negotiators on both sides have begun to meet with mediators for the first time since President Donald Trump assumed the position on January 20. The first 42 -day phase of the Gaza agreement and the temporary truce entered into force on the eve of its inauguration.

That first phase finally saw Hamas return 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight others, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as five living Thai hostages. It ended on March 1.

Israel now expects the United States to advance in a plan for a two -month truce extension, which would begin with the launch of approximately half of the living hostages that are still maintained.

Hamas has so far rejected that, demanding immediate conversations in the second phase in the original high -fire agreement, which would end the war and lead to a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops.

However, he declared that he was approaching the ongoing discussions in Doha with “full responsibility and positivity.”

From the beginning of this month, Israel has blocked all help deliveries, including food and fuel, to Gazasaying that he aims to press Hamas.

Electricity has also been cut to the only desalination plant in the territory that provides clean waterso that it is now working at a reduced capacity in generators that use fuel reserves.

In response, the Hutí movement in Yemen said Tuesday that it would restart attacks against Israeli ships that pass through the Red Sea and Aden’s Gulf, threatening to throw a key maritime route towards chaos once more.

There is a growing alarm due to Israel’s potential impact that blocks Gaza’s goods, and some of its allies warn that this could violate international law.

The local UN coordinator, Muhannad Hadi, said: “Any additional delay (upon entering help) will further reverse any progress we have achieved during the top fire.”

“We pray that these issues are urgently resolved,” said a baker, Husam Rustom, to the BBC.

With the stop to the supplies of flour and gas for cooking, he said that his bakery, which he had been providing more than 2,000 bread packages per day, had been forced to close, as well as several others in the southern city of Khan Younis.

“We are exhausted and tired of all this. He is driving us crazy,” said Zeinab al-Bayuk, a grandmother. He added that food prices had increased rapidly.

Mariam Abu Makhimer, a student, opposed an extension of the existing truce. “There must be a solution that ends the war,” he said. “It’s enough!”

The United States has never confirmed it, but Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on March 2 that Witkoff had proposed a temporary extension of the high fire until after the Islamic Sacred Month of Ramadan and the Jewish holidays of Easter.

According to this plan, which Netanyahu said that Israel had accepted, half of the hostages would be released together at the beginning and the other half at the end.

The prime minister suggested that Witkoff had “even defined his proposal as a runner for negotiations in the second stage. Israel is ready for this.”

It is believed that Hamas still has up to 24 hostages live in Gaza and the remains of another 35. An American-Israeli soldier, Edan Alexander, 21, is among those who say they are alive. There are also the bodies of four American citizens.

Hamas has accused Israel of Renging in the original high -fire agreement.

Despite the pressure of regional mediators, Qatar and Egypt, as well as the USA,, it is considered unlikely that the armed group renounces many of the hostages without a complete ending to fight in Gaza. He sees them as their main negotiation chips in the conversations.

For family members and supporters of the Israelis in captivity, these are desperate times.

Since Saturday, some have been camping outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv to demand an immediate agreement of Gaza Cesefire that would release everyone in captivity.

“How can I start processing our personal tragedy when national trauma is not over yet?” Said Ofri Bibas, Yarden Bibas’ sister in the protest on Monday night.

The recent exchanges with Hamas led to the launch of their brother and The return of the bodies of his sister -in -law, Shiri, and two young nephews, Ariel and Kfir, who were killed in Gaza.

“I have 59 brothers and sisters who are in hell,” said Ofri, referring to the remaining total number of hostages. “We received Yarden alive, but Shiri and the children could have been saved. For Easter, everyone must be at home, and the only way to bring everyone back is to end the war. Now.”

A survey for the television of the Canal 13 of Israel indicates that half of the Israelis believe that the president of the United States is more concerned about the fate of the hostages that Netanyahu.

When asked which of the two who thought he was more worried, 50% of respondents said Trump, 29% of Netanyahu, and the rest was not sure.

The allies of the extreme right of the prime minister have threatened to collapse his ruling coalition if the fight does not resume in Gaza to achieve his war target of crushing Hamas.

Until now, both Israel and Hamas have largely refrain from hostilities in the Palestinian territory.

However, recently, Israel has carried out daily attacks. On Tuesday, four men were killed in Wadi Gaza, which is also known as the Netzarim corridor, an area that Israeli forces retired as part of Gaza Cesefire’s terms.

The Israeli army said that its Air Force had attacked “several terrorists involved in suspicious activities that represent a threat to troops (Israelis).”

Speaking to the BBC in the city of Gaza, the father of one of the killed, Arafat Hana, said that his son, Omar, had not done anything wrong.

He said he was with neighbors walking towards a camp of displaced people where they had previously stayed to recover belongings.

“They were innocent. They were only going to get mattresses and other things. They weren’t wearing rockets!” Umm Tareq Obaid said, who lived near men.

The new threats of the hutis have the potential to finish a period of relative calm in the broader region that began with the high Gaza Fire on January 19.

More than 15 months from November 2023, they used missiles and drones to attack more than 100 merchant ships, saying that they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Many ships had no connection with Israel. Two sunk, one was seized and four sailors were killed.

The hutis say that they now want to “press the Entity of the Israeli usurper to reopen the crossings to the gaza strip and allow the entry of help, including food and doctors supplies.”

However, there has not been an immediate sign of ships that are attacked.

The attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023 killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, with 251 hostages. The majority of women and children captured were released during a one -week truce in November 2023.

The unprecedented mortal assault triggered a war in Gaza that since then has killed more than 48,500 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Ministry of Health of Hamas, the UN and others.