“Continuing the path of terror, violence, killings and war means giving Hamas what it seeks. We can’t do it,” said American President Joe Biden in a post published on his X account last night. “Hamas carried out a… “terrorist attack because he fears nothing other than Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace,” Biden explains. According to American journalist Patty Culhane, former White House correspondent for various US media outlets and now a reporter for the English-language channel Al Jazeera, the news shows that something is “slightly changing” in the position of the American president, which has been the case so far never publicly called for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. “When it comes to Israel, U.S. politicians usually change their messages subtly through social media, through leaks,” Culhane says.
Israel has received a list of the sixth group of hostages expected to be released today by Hamas in exchange for the release of other Palestinian prisoners, international media reported. The list was presented to the Israeli government and the families of the abductees were informed, reports Haaretz and CNN, among others, citing official sources. According to the latest agreement between Israel and Hamas announced by Qatar, each day of the ceasefire extension provides for the release of 10 Israeli hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners.
Egyptian newspaper The New Arab reports that a tentative agreement has been reached to extend the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which expires tomorrow morning, for another two days and under the same conditions that currently apply. “With Egyptian-Qatari-American mediation, a preliminary agreement was reached to extend the ceasefire between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation army for another two days under the same conditions,” according to “official sources” from Cairo, such as The New Arab it calls . In an interview with the Egyptian newspaper, one of these sources said that there had been “contacts with groups in Gaza that are holding prisoners who meet the conditions of the ceasefire,” referring to women and children. Israeli officials told Haaretz newspaper that the proposal to extend the ceasefire had been examined but not yet confirmed. According to the Israeli newspaper’s sources, the agreement depends on whether Hamas is able to release ten more Israeli hostages every day. The British newspaper The Guardian points out that if the ceasefire is extended, Hamas may have to release at least some Israeli men for the first time, as fewer women and children remain in captivity.
Another ten Israeli hostages, mostly elderly women from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and two Thais were released by Hamas on the fifth day of the ceasefire in Gaza, in exchange for the release of another 30 Palestinian prisoners (15 women and 15 minors). With a now tried and tested protocol that the West, led by the USA, wants to extend further beyond the first two-day extension and consolidate it to such an extent that a more or less permanent ceasefire is assumed, if not the end of the war.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this would be the target of the main mediators meeting in these hours in Doha: the head of the CIA, William Burns, that of the Mossad David Barnea, in conversation with the Prime Minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani and the Egyptian Intelligence chief Abbas Kamal.
However, Israel has already indicated that it is not prepared to extend the ceasefire, which is due to expire at dawn on Thursday, beyond next Sunday for a total of 10 days, Haaretz said, citing an official briefed on the talks.
The ceasefire has so far brought some relief to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, thanks in part to an ever-increasing influx of humanitarian aid, but on the ground it already appears to be hanging by a thread. The Israeli army has actually reported that three remote-controlled bombs exploded in northern Gaza, two of them “near Rantisi Hospital, on the ceasefire line,” and a third near a unit of the 261st Brigade.
The IDF said that in one of these incidents, fire was opened on soldiers responding to the attack. “Some soldiers were not seriously injured,” the spokesman added. Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of a “flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” to which “our fighters responded.” “We are committed to the ceasefire as long as Israel is committed to it. We call on mediators to urge Israel to respect all agreements on earth and in heaven,” the Palestinian group added. The accident had no consequences, but was enough to make people fear the worst.
Also on the negotiators’ table would be an attempt to expand the agreement to include the release of male hostages and Israeli soldiers in exchange for a much larger number of Palestinians compared to the current agreement’s 3:1 ratio (WSJ). speaks of thousands) and a long-term ceasefire. Burns is also pushing for the immediate release of the American hostages, estimated to number between 8 and 9, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Israel and the West Bank in the next few days to reaffirm “Israel’s right to defend itself in a line.” with international humanitarian law” and discuss how to “continue efforts to secure the release of hostages, protect civilians during Israeli operations in Gaza and expedite humanitarian assistance,” the State Department said.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that Israel would “continue” the fight against Hamas once the hostages included in the deal, namely “women, children and foreigners,” were brought home. However, in view of the military operation in the south of the Gaza Strip, the US still wants to persuade Israel to wage “a different campaign”, “to act with the utmost vigilance to minimize the consequences of further, significant displacement” and in a sense “the conflicts with humanitarian “Avoid facilities as much as possible, including the numerous U.N. shelters in central and southern Gaza,” a senior White House official said in a telephone briefing.
In essence, Washington does not want to revisit the scenes of the first phase of the war, with the UNRWA structures full of displaced people hit by air strikes, nor the mass exodus from north to south: “It would be more than disruptive.” would limit the capacities of each “It will blow up the humanitarian support network, however strong or robust it may be,” the official added, reporting that Israel’s response appeared “receptive.” “There is an awareness that a different type of campaign needs to be carried out in the south than in the north,” he concluded, putting on the table, in addition to humanitarian aid, the possible reopening of the Kerem Shalom border crossing for the entry of 3-400 trucks per day of trade goods.
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