Trump: No guarantees Gaza ceasefire will hold

US President Donald Trump said on Monday there were no guarantees the ceasefire in Gaza would hold, while his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said the deal was holding for now.

Trump and Witkoff made the statements to reporters at the White House. In parallel, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted sources as saying that Trump and his envoy Witkoff are determined to complete the agreement to release the hostages (Israeli detainees in Gaza) until the war ends.

In the same context, the correspondent of the American website Axios said on the X platform, today, Monday, that the Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation government, Benjamin Netanyahu, will extend his visit to Washington, DC, and will return to Israel on Saturday.

According to Netanyahu's office, he is expected to meet with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza, Israeli detainees held by Hamas, and the confrontation with Iran and its allies in the region.

On Sunday, Netanyahu considered the meeting to be of special importance, as it was Trump's first meeting with a foreign leader since his inauguration as President of the United States of America and his return to the White House.

Netanyahu told reporters before leaving for Washington that Trump's decision to have Netanyahu be the first foreign leader to meet with him "reflects the strength of the alliance and the relationship between us, a relationship that led to the Abraham Accords that President Trump led."

This comes as two leading sources in the Hamas movement told Agence France-Presse today, Monday, that the movement is ready to begin the second round of negotiations with Israel within the framework of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

A leader in the movement who preferred to remain anonymous said: “The negotiations for the second phase of the negotiations are scheduled to begin today... Hamas informed the mediators during the ongoing contacts and meetings held with the Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo that we are ready to begin the round of negotiations for the second phase.”

Another source in the movement confirmed: "We are waiting for the mediators to start the round of negotiations. The Hamas delegation is ready and committed to implementing the terms of the agreement."

The sixteenth day of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has passed without an Israeli decision yet to send a delegation to the second phase talks, as stipulated in the first phase of the agreement.

(Reuters, AFP, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed)