Hamas official welcomes US announcement on 2nd phase of Gaza truce

A senior Hamas official has welcomed the US announcement on the start of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian resistance group and Israel that aimed to end the latter’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Taher al-Nunu made the remarks on Thursday, one day after US special envoy to West Asia Steve Witkoff declared in an X post the launch of phase two of President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan, saying it would move on from the initial deal agreed to late last year to “demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.”

Nunu, an advisor to the head of Hamas's political bureau, welcomed the establishment of the technocratic committee and underlined the need for reopening Rafah crossings, allowing the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and securing the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the besieged territory.

Israel is seeking not to fulfill its commitments under the Gaza truce, but efforts are underway by mediators to compel the usurping regime to implement the agreement, he added.

On Wednesday, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem described Witkoff's announcement as an important and positive development.

He further expressed the readiness of the Palestinian resistance group to hand over the administration of Gaza to an independent technocratic committee and facilitate its work.

The Palestinian technocratic committee is meant to be overseen by the so-called Board of Peace, a panel which will reportedly be headed by veteran Bulgarian and UN diplomat Nickolay Mladenov.

Gaza ceasefire mediators, including Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, welcomed the formation of the technocratic body, which is supposed to take over the day-to-day running of the Palestinian territory for a transition period.

They said in a joint statement that the committee would be headed by Ali Abdel Hamid Shaath, a former deputy minister of planning in the Palestinian Authority.

“The mediators express their hope that the formation of the committee will pave the way for the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.

It also stressed that all parties must “fully commit to implementing the agreement in order to achieve a sustainable peace and create the appropriate conditions for the reconstruction” of Gaza, where more than 80 percent of all buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Israeli attacks.

The first phase of the Gaza deal began on October 10, 2025 with the exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian abductees, as well as the withdrawal of the occupation soldiers to the so-called yellow line, the lethal ceasefire boundary in Gaza.

Since then, however, Israel has kept bombing Gaza and expanded its occupation of the territory in violation of the truce, killing at least 449 Palestinians. Many of the victims were shot by Israeli forces near the yellow line.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, but it failed to achieve its declared objectives despite killing more than 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring over 171,000 others.

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