A week after the new roadmap announced by US President Joe Biden, diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip appear to have stalled, despite talks this week in Doha, Qatar. Washington announced that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan next week. But when the US diplomatic chief returns to the Middle East, the Israeli political scene may have changed. According to the local press, this evening Benny Gantz, the former head of the Israeli army who became Benjamin Netanyahu’s political rival, is expected to announce his resignation from the Netanyahu government, of which he was part after the Hamas attack on 7 October. Gantz has called a press conference for this evening in Ramat Gan, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Last May 18, the leader of the National Union (Centre) party issued an ultimatum to Netanyahu, asking for the adoption of an “action plan” for the post-war period in the Gaza Strip, failing which he would be “forced to resign from the government.” Last week his party presented a bill to dissolve Parliament, with little chance of success at this stage because Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party still has the majority of deputies, along with its allies in the ultra-Orthodox parties and far right. But Netanyahu is also facing pressure from his far-right allies, including his National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have threatened to leave his government if a ceasefire agreement is reached with Hamas. However, if the Netanyahu government were to fall and early elections were called, Gantz favorite to form coalition amid turmoil, with Israel facing increased international pressure.
Israel learned on Friday that it had been added to the United Nations’ “list of shame” on children’s rights in conflict, in a report due at the end of June. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said he was “shocked and disgusted” by Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ decision. However, a diplomatic source told AFP that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second largest armed Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip, will also be added to the list.
Meanwhile, international aid, whose entry into Gaza is controlled by Israel, is flowing into the territory where the unemployment rate has reached a “staggering 79.1%”, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). Yesterday the US army announced that the temporary pier built on the coast of Gaza for the transport of humanitarian aid, damaged by a storm at the end of May, has been restored after repairs. Trying to escape fighting and bombing, Palestinians displaced by the war went to refresh themselves on Deir el-Balah beach yesterday despite it being polluted by sewage. The sea offers a respite “from the insects, the heat (…) and the smell of corpses”, Mohamed Ghaben, who has been displaced several times within the territory since the start of the war in Gaza, told AFP.
