The tracked vehicle of the 401st Armored Brigade arrives at the Rafah crossing at first light. The images posted by the IDF show the Israeli flag on the flagpole rising from the newly occupied Palestinian side and immediately closed to passage with Egypt which controls the other side and is only three and a half kilometers from here. Other frames circulated online show another armored vehicle overwhelming and destroying the red sign at the entrance to the city “I love Gaza” filmed by a soldier despite the prohibitions imposed by his leaders. The Rafah operation announced, feared, discouraged by many international actors, has therefore begun.
Gaza, offensive on Rafah. Kerem Shalom crossing reopened
THE OBJECTIVES
The toll speaks of twenty militiamen killed, three tunnels discovered, and a car bomb detonated before it reached its target. The headquarters of the city’s local government was hit – Al Jazeera reveals. But what is most worrying is the closure of all the crossings, including the Israeli ones at Erez and Kerem Shalom. From here, through the major Salah el Din artery (also controlled by the Israeli military), trucks pass with humanitarian aid and fuel which is now sufficient for a single day. “They must reopen as soon as possible” is the request of the United States which does not fail to make it known that it disapproves of entry into the southern part of the Strip where one million four hundred thousand people are crowded. Several representatives of the Israeli government are quick to define it as a “limited” military operation and say they are ready to stop it, “with the release of the hostages being the priority” as the minister and opposition leader associated with the war cabinet Benny Gantz says. And Defense Minister Gallant specifies: «The operations will continue until the destruction of Hamas or until the first hostage returns. We are willing to compromise in order to free the kidnapped.”
This is precisely the reason why the Israeli negotiators – the head of the Mossad and that of the Shin Bet and the head of the Security Council – were nevertheless sent to Cairo to participate in the talks managed by Egypt, Qatar, and the USA, with the mandate to listen, ask questions but not go into the merits of the negotiation.
THE REACTION
The White House expressed hope that Israel and Hamas can fill the remaining gaps in the difficult negotiation path. “We will do everything we can to support this process,” concludes National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. But Washington remains critical of the method of execution: the closure of the crossings for aid supplies by Israel is defined as “unacceptable” by White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. The choice was voted unanimously by Netanyahu’s government (and therefore also by the opposition present in the executive). In fact, according to intelligence information, the crossing itself, in the eastern part of the city, would have been used for terrorist purposes, as also confirmed by the numerous shots fired by Hamas from this area last Sunday, killing four soldiers in the Kerem Shalom area.
THE NEGOTIATIONS
The operation, ready for days, was kicked off by Hamas’ response to the draft agreement prepared by Egypt and Qatar and practically approved by Israel and the United States. The political leaders of the terrorist group, resident in Doha, had made it known that they had accepted the agreement, but Israel immediately spoke of a “cheat” in order to delay the imminent ground operation and to throw off the responsibility for the failure, as he wrote Hamas on Telegram, on «Netanyahu and his extremist government».
In the Kirya palace, the headquarters of the Israeli military commands in the heart of Tel Aviv where the war cabinet had met, the four pages arriving from Cairo of the document approved by Hamas immediately appeared different in some of the contents agreed with the Egyptian negotiators. First of all, no longer thirty-three hostages to be exchanged in the first phase – and with set times – each with 20 prisoners in Israeli prisons, but the exchange would have taken place with hostages “dead or alive” (according to rumors the number of living would not have exceeded 18) . Then the proportion of the exchange changed: the twenty Palestinian prisoners to be released for each hostage, alive or dead, became 30. The same thing happened for the female soldiers to be released in the first phase in exchange for 40 prisoners each, who in the new version drawn up by Hamas would then be instead they became 50. And in the agreement that the jihadist group said it was ready to sign, the Israeli right of veto on the names of the prisoners it was supposed to free was not foreseen.
Netanyahu’s judgment was harsh: «Hamas’s proposal aimed only at sabotaging the entry into Rafah. It didn’t happen. Our objectives remain two: the return of the hostages and the elimination of Hamas. We will not accept any proposal that endangers the safety and future of our citizens.”
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