By Andrew Mills and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan
DOHA/CAIRO (Reuters) – Sunday’s delayed start to the Gaza ceasefire and incidents on Monday in which Israeli troops shot at Palestinians approaching them underline some of the hiccups likely to face a deal that will play out in the shadow of mutual mistrust and bitterness.
Qatar and Egypt, which brokered the deal alongside the U.S., have set up a communications hub to tackle any problems, where officials who worked on the deal for months hope to head off new clashes between foes locked in a years-long cycle of Gaza wars.
“These kinds of deals are never easy to maintain,” said Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry.
Particularly in a war zone the situation can shift very quickly, either by accident or through political posturing on one side or another, he said.
“Any party could consider a threat a reason to violate the parameters of the agreement, and therefore we would end up with having to go in and to find a way to resume the ceasefire.”
With just over an hour to go before the ceasefire was due to take effect on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would not observe the halt to fighting until Hamas handed over the names of the three hostages to be released later in the day.
Fighting continued almost three hours past the deadline, while a Hamas official in the coordination room set up in Cairo discussed the delay, which Hamas put down to unspecified “technical issues” with officials.
The issue was eventually dealt with and the three hostages were released on schedule in the afternoon in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails late that night, setting off emotional scenes as they returned to their families.
“We don’t expect things to go according to plan,” said one official briefed on the negotiations, adding that issues of this kind were not expected to derail a process that diplomats and officials have been working on for months.
“It’s hard to believe that after all the work the mediators have put in and the assurances they received, both from the U.S. and the mediators, that this deal would derail on day one,” the official said.
The multi-phase deal will see an initial six-week ceasefire, during which 33 hostages will be gradually exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, people displaced from northern Gaza will be allowed to return to their homes and Israeli troops will pull back from some positions.
During the first phase,…
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