Tehran, Feb 19: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that US “foolish” plans for Gaza and Palestine “will lead nowhere.”

“Those who claimed that they would destroy resistance in a short period of time are now receiving their prisoners from the resistance fighters in small groups and releasing a large number of Palestinian captives in return,” Khamenei said when meeting with visiting Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement Ziad al-Nakhalah, Xinhua news agency reported quoting a statement by Khamenei’s website.

As “global public opinion is now in favour of Palestine,” no plan will succeed without the consent of the resistance and people of Gaza, he said.

For his part, al-Nakhalah thanked Iran’s constant support for the resistance in Gaza, which he said managed to achieve “great victories” over the United States and the West despite the unequal balance of power.

US President Donald Trump proposed recently to transfer Gaza’s Palestinian population to neighboring countries, stating that Gazans who left will not be allowed to return.

The proposal, strongly supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has met continuous regional and international outcry.

Earlier on February 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is discussing US President Donald Trump’s “revolutionary, creative vision” on the Gaza Strip, the one that Trump is “very determined to implement.”

Trump’s plan “opens up many possibilities for us,” Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting after his return from Washington to Israel, according to a statement released by Netanyahu’s office.

“For an entire year, we have been told that the ‘day after’ (in Gaza) must involve the PLO (the Palestine Liberation Organization), the Palestinian Authority … President Trump has presented a completely different vision, one that is much better for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.

Jerusalem, Feb 17: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a negotiation team will travel to Cairo on Monday to discuss the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

According to a statement released by his office, Netanyahu said he spoke by phone with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, after which he instructed an Israeli negotiation team to depart for Cairo on Monday.

The team will first discuss the “continuation of the implementation of Phase One of the deal,” and will “receive instructions on continuing negotiations regarding the second phase” after a meeting of the Israeli Security Cabinet scheduled for Monday, the statement said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Witkoff said talks about the second phase have already begun and will continue this week “at a location to be determined so that we can figure out how we get to the end of Phase Two successfully.”

On Saturday, Hamas and Israel completed the sixth prisoner-for-hostage exchange following days of tense negotiations that threatened to undo the precarious ceasefire.

In the exchange, Hamas released three more Israeli hostages held in Gaza, while Israeli authorities freed 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, effective since January 19 and spanning six weeks, 33 Israeli hostages are expected to be released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians. So far, 19 Israeli hostages, along with five Thais, have been released from Gaza, while Israeli authorities have released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel and Hamas were supposed to begin talks on the second phase in early February. Hamas said in a statement on February 4 that it had started discussions with international mediators, whereas a spokesman for Netanyahu said on social media platform X on Tuesday that Israel had not yet begun negotiations on the second phase.

The second phase of the agreement is supposed to focus on the release of the remaining hostages, the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, and the implementation of a permanent ceasefire.

Ramallah, Feb 15: The Israeli authorities on Saturday released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees from its jails as part of the sixth batch of prisoner-for-hostage exchanges between Israel and Hamas.

Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told news agency that among the freed prisoners were 36 serving life sentences, and 333 detainees who had been arrested by Israel from the Gaza Strip following the October 7, 2023 attack.

Palestinian sources and eyewitnesses said that the prisoners were received in the courtyard of the Ramallah Cultural Palace in the presence of the Red Cross and their families.

Before the release of the prisoners, eyewitnesses said that Israeli forces stormed the city of Beitunia, west of Ramallah, to prevent Palestinians from assembling near the gate of Ofer prison, where the prisoners were being freed.

Earlier on Saturday, the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad released three Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The Israeli authorities have confirmed their arrival in Israel.

The freed hostages — Alexandre Sasha Troufanov, a 29-year-old Israeli-Russian citizen; Sagui Dekel-Chen, a 36-year-old Israeli-American citizen; and Iair Horn, a 46-year-old Israeli-Argentine citizen — were kidnapped in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Troufanov was kidnapped along with his mother, grandmother, and partner, and the three women were released in a previous hostage deal in November 2023. His father was killed on the day of the kidnapping.

Dekel-Chen, a father of three, had a daughter born after his abduction. Horn’s brother, Eitan, remains in captivity in Gaza.

“Thanks to the concentration of our forces in and around the Gaza Strip, and thanks to the clear and unequivocal statement of US President Donald Trump, Hamas has withdrawn and the release of the hostages continues,” said a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump warned on Monday that if “all of the hostages” in Gaza were not freed by noon on Saturday, the truce would be called off, and he would “let hell break out.”

Under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, effective since January 19 and spanning six weeks, 33 Israeli hostages are expected to be released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians. So far, 19 Israeli hostages, along with five Thais, have been released.