Fragile calm in Gaza as US, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye urge restraint to save ceasefire

Amid the fragile calm of a battered ceasefire, the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye have jointly urged restraint and fidelity to promises made, as hopes of peace in Gaza hang by a slender thread, the Al Jazeera reported.

Speaking after high-level talks in Miami, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, called on all parties to honour their commitments and avert a renewed descent into bloodshed.

Senior representatives of the four mediator nations met Witkoff on Friday to assess the first phase of the Israel–Hamas ceasefire, which came into force on 10 October. A joint statement released a day later pointed to measured gains — expanded humanitarian aid, partial troop withdrawals, the return of captives’ remains and a relative easing of hostilities — even as violence continued to stalk the besieged enclave.

The talks took place against a grim backdrop. Gaza’s civil defence reported that six people were killed on Friday when an Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced families, bringing the death toll since the truce began to around 400. On Saturday, rescue teams recovered 94 more bodies from beneath the rubble of destroyed homes in central Gaza City, a stark reminder of the devastation still buried beneath the ruins, the Al Jazeera reported.

“We reaffirm our full commitment to the entirety of the President’s 20-point peace plan,” Witkoff said in a statement posted on X, urging all sides to exercise restraint and cooperate with monitoring mechanisms designed to preserve the truce.

The mediators called for the swift establishment of a transitional administration — a key pillar of the ceasefire’s second phase — as consultations continue over its implementation. Under the agreement, Israel is expected to withdraw from Gaza, Hamas is to be replaced by an interim governing authority, and an international stabilisation force is to be deployed across the territory.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Friday voiced hope that countries would step forward to contribute troops to that force, while cautioning that the process could collapse without the disarmament of Hamas.

Diplomatic efforts also extended to Istanbul, where Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya met Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin. In a statement issued after the meeting, Hamas said it remained committed to the ceasefire despite what it described as repeated Israeli violations, stressing the urgent need to halt attacks that continue to claim civilian lives.

The group also highlighted Gaza’s worsening humanitarian catastrophe as winter storms lash the enclave, calling for the immediate entry of tents, caravans and heavy machinery to protect displaced families from cold, flooding and further loss of life. Aid agencies warn that Israeli restrictions are choking the flow of lifesaving assistance to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike on two people in northern Gaza who it claimed posed an “immediate threat” after crossing a designated boundary line. It remained unclear whether they were killed or wounded.

More than a year into Israel’s war on Gaza, the scale of devastation continues to grow. Over 70,700 Palestinians — most of them women and children — have been killed, and more than 171,000 injured since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to remain buried beneath the ruins, their fates still unknown, as the enclave waits anxiously to see whether the fragile promise of peace can survive.