Gaza, Netanyahu: «In Rafah with or without an agreement». Phases, times and hostages: the conditions of the agreement

In Middle EastOften, time is an indefinite dimension, to be bent or expanded according to convenience. For Hamas it is a weapon of pressure to achieve even better conditions than the “extraordinarily generous” ones – as US Secretary of State Antony defined them Blinken on a mission to Jordan – for a ceasefire and an exchange of Palestinian hostages and prisoners. And so after waiting a few days, before flying to Cairo to examine the proposal of the Egyptian and Qatari negotiators, the leaders of the Islamic terrorist organization took more time to give their response, despite the invitation to “accept without other delays” of the head of American diplomacy, who has been in Israel since yesterday. Yet upon their arrival they had expressed an open-minded position and before leaving they told a Saudi TV that the proposed agreement would reflect some conditions posed by them. The more or less official reason is that they now have to get in touch and wait for the opinions of the two military leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif hidden in the darkness of some tunnel in the Strip. But the extension of time is seen in Israel as an attempt to delay the operation in Rafah as much as possible, increasing the pressure of the hostages’ families and also the conflicts within the executive and the war cabinet.

THE OPERATION

And then comes the statement from Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu which brings with it a gust of frost: «The evacuation of civilians from Rafah has begun, we will enter and eliminate Hamas with or without an agreement». “The idea of ​​stopping the war without dismantling the battalions still present is unthinkable.” Words intended for many ears. To the relatives of the hostages and the soldiers – or rather: to the two right-wing organizations that group them together – in front of whom he delivers his speech, and to whom he promises that the war cannot end without the return home of their relatives (even if the bulk of family members is firmly against action at this time). And they are also words that should somehow calm the anger of the two exponents of the messianic and ultranationalist right who are threatening to leave the government if the operation in Rafah is stopped. But in this way Netanyahu is thinking above all of increasing the pressure on Hamas which in this whole affair, thanks to the hostages it holds, continues to impose its own conditions.

THE NEGOTIATIONS

From what filters through the Arab newspapers Hamas he wants further concessions on the withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Netzarim corridor which bisects the Strip, on the number and identity of the Palestinian prisoners who will leave the prisons. According to the Wall Street Journal, however, the hypothesis on the table would be divided into two phases. The first with the return home of 20 hostages in three weeks, the second would provide for a 10-week ceasefire during which the number of hostages released would be greater and the truce could last months. Numbers which, however, do not align with the hypotheses circulated so far according to which the civilians who could be released would be 33, the only survivors of six months of very harsh imprisonment. Hamas would also like Turkey to be included among the guarantors of the agreement together with Egypt, Qatar, the USA and Russia, a condition rejected by Israel which would instead have expressed its willingness to return to the north of the Strip not only for women, elderly people and children, as initially decided. Also looming over all these uncertainties is the specter of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi for crimes against humanity which could ruin any agreement. At least this is the fear of the United States and many of its allies. “If it were to happen – Netanyahu thunders – it would be an indelible stain on all humanity, a hate crime that would add fuel to anti-Semitism.”

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Read the full article at
The messenger