FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – He is holding the little girl in his arms Avigail Idan and together with 17 international leaders writes a letter to ask for the release of the hostages who spent another 150 days in the tunnels of Gaza after the girl’s release at the end of last November.
Joe Biden invited her to the White House with the relatives who take care of her, the parents were killed on October 7.
«The agreement would lead to an immediate ceasefire — write the American president and other heads of government, representing prisoners with dual nationality or foreigners — and it would give the possibility of bringing in much more aid. We support efforts to bring our citizens home. Hamas must let them go.”
Negotiations appear to be progressing: a delegation from Cairo arrives in Israel today to discuss a possible agreement for a temporary truce in exchange for the return of the last seized ones, while the army continues preparations for the invasion of Rafahthe city towards the border with Egypt where over one and a half million displaced people from the north have been reduced to rubble, the Palestinians killed in total are over 34 thousand.
There Nahal Brigade was withdrawn from the Strip for a period of exercises before theincursion, which the Egyptians and Washington oppose.
An American official – writes the Times of Israel newspaper – claims that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu would have accepted the return of refugees to northern Gaza: it is one of Hamas’ requests and at the same time it would allow civilians to be moved from Rafah as the White House wants.
Fundamentalist spokesmen reiterate that Biden’s pressure is useless, the only possibility to reach an agreement «is the end of the war and the total removal of the troops». Khalil Al Hayya, among the leaders living abroad, declares from Qatar that the group would be willing to accept a five-year truce and lay down their arms if a Palestinian state was created within the 1967 borders. «A temporary position – he clarifies – because we have the right to all the lands».
In any case, Hamas – comments John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Advisor at the White House – «cannot be part of a future nation. There is a need for governments on both sides to guarantee peace.”
