UN calls for truce to hold after swap completion

Amid the jubilant and emotional scenes that greeted the final Israel-Hamas hostage-prisoner swap on Thursday, senior United Nations officials cautioned against an "alarming spillover of the Gaza war "in the occupied West Bank and called for the current truce to hold.

Israel released 596 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday and is due to free another 46 women and minors in exchange for the return of the bodies of four hostages held in Gaza, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said.

This marked the final swap under the first phase of a Gaza cease-fire deal that took effect on Jan 19. The deal provided for the release of 33 hostages, including eight dead bodies, by March 1, in exchange for 1,900 Palestinians held by Israel.

"Pursuant to Israel's demands, agreement has been reached with the mediators," the office of Israel's prime minister said.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN human rights chief Volker Turk appealed for the fragile cease-fire to hold and said it must be implemented in "good faith and in full "after suffering days of delay.

"At this tenuous moment, the world must ask itself how to resolve this decades-old conflict and stop the cycle of violence," he said.

"Any plans for a better future must deal with the past, so accountability and justice for violations are crucial."

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, wrote on X that the West Bank is "undergoing an alarming spillover of the Gaza war".

More than 50 people, including children, have reportedly been killed since the Israel Defense Forces operation started five weeks ago, he said, and about 40,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, especially in refugee camps in the north.

"The West Bank is becoming a battlefield: ordinary Palestinians are the first and most to suffer. This must end," he said.

On Thursday, Hamas said it was ready to begin negotiations on the second phase of the cease-fire.

Talks are yet to begin on a second phase of the deal, meant to lead to a permanent end to the conflict.

Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin, West Bank, told China Daily that Israel is trying to extend the first stage of negotiations with Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is really in a crisis" trying to manage his government and "keep this radical right government intact", Yousef said.

On the other hand, Hamas was willing to enter the second phase of the truce, where Israel must withdraw its forces from Gaza and declare an end to the conflict, he said.

Hamas remains "open to the idea" of extending the first stage, he added, because it fears the whole deal will collapse.

Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies, said the exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas brings "moments of relief "but it does not signal a resolution to the broader conflict.

West Bank spillover

The Palestinian struggle for sovereignty is not limited to Gaza but also includes the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Sulaeman said.

"The increasing Israeli military attacks and settlers in the two occupied areas have the potential to trigger resistance from Palestinian fighters in both regions.

"This condition makes the ceasefire even more fragile because so far, the truce has been agreed upon many times in Gaza, but in the end, it always ends with the next attack from Israel," she said.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump's top envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said at an American Jewish Committee event on Wednesday that he may visit the Middle East on Sunday.

A day earlier, Witkoff had said that a summit would soon be held with real estate developers and planners from the region to discuss the administration's plans to reconstruct Gaza.

Trump has received backlash after announcing plans to "take over "Gaza and expel Palestinians from their homeland.

"It shows the growing delusion of Trump, who wants to make Gaza a business area," Sulaeman said.

The international community must be more aware of this move because the Palestinian question is about freedom and human rights and cannot be resolved with business solutions, she said.

"We must always focus on addressing the root causes of the conflict — not just managing the symptoms for the benefit of a handful of billionaires," she added.

Agencies contributed to this story.