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Neither Israel nor Hamas interested in phase 2 of ceasefire, researcher says

Feb 5, 2026
Speaking with FRANCE 24's Mark Owen, Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, says neither Israel nor Hamas are interested in moving to phase 2 of the ceasefire because "Israel's prime directive is annexation of the West Bank, and Hamas' prime directive is to take over the Palestinian national movement from Fatah and change it from a nationalist secular movement into an Islamist one that they control".
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