UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the ceasefire and prisoner release agreement in Gaza "must hold," as the first phase of the deal ends and talks on the second phase of the agreement resume in Cairo.

"The ceasefire and hostage release agreement must hold," Guterres said, stressing that "the two parties must spare no effort to avoid the collapse of this agreement."

His remarks came after Hamas on Friday called on the international community to pressure Israel to extend the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The first phase of the truce, which came into effect on January 19, is supposed to end in principle on Saturday, while the terms of the second phase, which stipulates an end to the war, have not yet been agreed upon.

After weeks of deadlock, Israel sent its negotiators to Cairo on Thursday, where “intensive talks began to discuss the next stages of the truce agreement.” Officials from Qatar and Egypt are leading the talks, with the participation of American representatives, according to Cairo.

The Israeli negotiating team returned from Cairo on Friday night - Saturday, and following that, it was announced that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, would hold consultations with ministers, security leaders, and the negotiating team to discuss the latest developments in the negotiations, at a time when Tel Aviv is seeking to extend the first phase and not move to the second phase.

Hamas stressed in a statement on Friday its "full commitment to implementing all the terms of the agreement in all its stages and details," calling on the international community to pressure Israel to "fully commit" to its role in the agreement and "immediately enter the second stage without any hesitation or evasion."

"One thing we can expect is that phase two will not start on Saturday, but I think the ceasefire will probably not collapse either," Max Rodenbeck, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP on Friday.

The remaining prisoners are supposed to be returned during the second phase of the ceasefire, which stipulates a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.

The third phase is supposed to be allocated to the reconstruction of Gaza, a huge project estimated by the United Nations to be worth more than $53 billion.