The status of the Hamas-Israel Interaction after a First Round of Negotiations against a Permanent Partisanship Power-Correction
An official said that the parties agreed to the terms of sustainable calm weeks ago after Israel objected to any reference to a permanent cease-fire. The Israeli government has consistently said it doesn’t support an agreement that explicitly calls for an end to the war.
For months, Israel has threatened to launch its ground offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.2 million population are sheltered. Netanyahu says it is the only way to defeat Hamas. Israel believes at least four remaining Hamas battalions are still based in Rafah.
Israel’s move comes after the latest round of negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas appeared to remain stuck on key issues of concern. William Burns, the head of the CIA, was in Cairo over the weekend.
Israel had ordered the local offices of Al Jazeera to close, accusing it of broadcasting anti- Israel propaganda. The ban did not appear to affect the channel’s operations in Gaza or the West Bank.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a statement earlier said the militant group was serious and positive about the negotiations and that stopping Israeli aggression in Gaza is the main priority.
“Nearly” Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza aren’t the same as their Palestinians, as they have been for thousands of years
The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, called for an independent investigation and “accountability for the blatant disregard of humanitarian workers.” He also said Israel this week denied him entry to Gaza for a second time.
In an interview with NBC, the WFP’s Cindy McCain stated that famine was moving its way south of Gaza and that Israel’s efforts to allow in more aid were not enough. The mass on the outside border has enough food for more than one million people for three months. We need to get that in.
Gaza’s vast humanitarian needs put pressure on the pursuit of a cease-fire. The proposal that Egyptian mediators put to Hamas sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate, six-week cease-fire and partial release of Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7, and would include some sort of Israeli pullout. The initial stage would go on for 40 days. Hamas would release female hostages in exchange for prisoners from Israel.
Another Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least five people, according to Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas command center in central Gaza. It wasn’t mention casualties.
In a fiery speech for Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day, Netanyahu added: “I say to the leaders of the world, no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself.”
Israeli’s air and ground offensive has killed over 34,500 people, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but say women and children make up a majority of those killed.
The Israeli military ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been displaced from Gaza to leave the area on Monday.
People in Rafah were told to leave for an “expanded humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi and Khan Younis, areas north and northwest of the city. In order to let people know where to flee, the military of Israel sent out text and voice messages, and posted maps on social media.
“We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel,” he said, refusing a deal that demands Israeli troop withdrawal and an end to the war.
“What is the meaning of the agreement if a ceasefire is not its first outcome,” he said, indicating the talks continued to be stuck on key points regarding Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza and whether a ceasefire and release of hostages would lead to a permanent ceasefire or a temporary truce.
Hamas is Ending the War: Israeli-Mexican Effort to Dismantle its Battalions in the Gaza Strip
Israel says that an assault on Rafah is necessary to dismantle Hamas battalions. Netanyahu last week vowed to enter the southern Gaza area “with or without a deal” with Hamas.
Egypt, which borders the city, has consistently opposed an assault on the city because it fears mass displacement of Palestinians into its territory.
Israeli military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, told journalists that Israel’s operation in Rafah would be limited. But Shoshani would not say whether this meant a broader incursion had begun or would continue at a later stage.
Khan Younis has been mostly destroyed by Israel’s assault there and fighting with Hamas. There are also unexploded munitions in the area. Meanwhile, the region of al-Mawasi borders the sea and is lacking basic humanitarian services, including access to health care, water and fuel for generators or power.
The U.S. and the UN have been trying to stop Israel from entering. Overnight, Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, told U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, in a phone call that “there was no choice left and this meant the start of the Israeli operation in Rafah.”
The proposal for a hostage-prisoner exchange and cease-fire that Hamas said on Monday that it could accept has minor wording changes from the one that Israel and the United States had presented to the group recently, according to two officials familiar with the revised proposal.
The officials said that the changes were made by Arab mediators, and that the new version retained a key phrase from earlier in the talks, “sustainable calm.”
One of the officials, in the Middle East, said that Hamas viewed the term as an end to the war, with Israel halting its military actions and withdrawing troops from Gaza. The officials said that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was expected to push back against that definition.
The Times of Gaza – a diplomatic response to the Israeli strike on the Hamas cease-fire proposal, or how the Israeli prime minister has arrived in Cairo
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The strikes may be a way to bring up the pressure on the Hamas negotiators. After a week of conflicting statements, the Israeli prime minister’s office said that Hamas’s latest cease-fire proposal was unsatisfactory.
A senior Hamas official said in a text message that the group’s representatives had arrived in Cairo for the talks, and that it was positive about the latest proposal.
Israeli officials said that they were still optimistic that a deal could be reached, even though they had reduced the number of hostages they wanted Hamas to release.