Negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire signed last October have stalled, mediators told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, as Hamas refuses to discuss the next stage until what it describes as outstanding first-phase obligations are met.
The Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process urged council members to consolidate the existing truce and to halt what she described as escalating violence and settlement activity in the West Bank. The body of the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza was retrieved earlier this week.
Hamas has said it will not negotiate disarmament — a central demand of the so-called Board of Peace overseeing the second phase — until Israel completes the prisoner-for-prisoner exchange agreed in October, increases humanitarian aid and pulls back from positions beyond the agreed "Yellow Line" inside Gaza.
Israeli officials reported 19 ceasefire violations by Hamas-linked factions between April 21 and May 5. Palestinian monitors say Israel has conducted near-daily strikes inside the territory and that aid deliveries have averaged about 145 trucks per day, well below the 600 envisaged in the agreement.
The first phase of the deal was signed by Israel and Hamas on October 9, 2025, brokered by US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators after more than two years of war. Six months in, large parts of Gaza remain uninhabitable, with reconstruction funding largely held up.
Diplomats said the focus of mediators in the coming weeks would be on a narrow set of confidence-building steps — additional aid corridors, an exchange of remains and a freeze on settlement construction — rather than an immediate push on second-phase issues.