A senior Hamas official told AFP that the Palestinian group “has no major problems” with Israel and Egypt’s latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. “The atmosphere is positive, unless there are new obstacles from Israel. There are no major problems in the comments and requests that Hamas will present regarding the contents” of the proposal, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, on the eve of the meeting in Cairo with Egypt and Qatar in which a response from Hamas is expected.
Benjamin Netanyahu
THE DAY
(by Massimo Lomonaco)
The IDF is getting ever closer to the operation in Rafah: the Israeli army has approved the new military plans for the continuation of the war in southern Gaza, which now only await the final green light from the Security Cabinet chaired by Benyamin Netanyahu. “It’s a matter of days”, warned the president of the PNA, Abu Mazen, relaunching the appeal to the USA – “the only country capable of doing it” – to stop the operation. And the issue was at the center of a new phone call on Sunday evening between Joe Biden and Netanyahu: the American president “reaffirmed his clear position” on Rafah while confirming “the unshakable support for the security” of the Jewish State, the White House. In the meeting the two also addressed the crux of the ongoing negotiations for the release of the hostages and an immediate ceasefire, while the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo which, a senior official announced, should give the response to the counter-proposal on Monday. Israeli. An agreement, which could stop the imminent action in the Palestinian city close to Egypt, on which Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also working alongside regional actors, having arrived in Riyadh on a new tour which on Tuesday will also bring him back to Israel. The American position on Rafah is well known: first we need to think about the civilian population of the city. But that the agreement is the winning card to avoid the military operation seems to be a prevailing opinion also in Israel. War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz himself argued that “entering Rafah is important in our long campaign against Hamas, but the return of the hostages captured on October 7 is of much greater importance.” A more nuanced position than that supported so far by Gantz.
Gaza
“The only way to avoid entering Rafah – insisted an Israeli source – is to reach an agreement on the hostages. Nobody – he insisted, referring to the strong international pressure – wants Israel to enter the Palestinian city”. The same source stressed that Israel made “major concessions” in the proposal to the mediators, including the return of displaced Palestinians to the northern Strip, which is one of Hamas’ main demands. If the white smoke from the Islamic faction arrives from Cairo, Blinken – who has seen both Abu Mazen and other Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia – upon arrival in Israel will have to deal with Netanyahu, Minister Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to put together the final details of the puzzle. However, the shadow of the possibility that the International Criminal Court in The Hague will issue arrest warrants for the war in the Strip is increasingly gathering over the prime minister – as well as Gantz and Gallant. Media reported continued phone calls over the weekend from Netanyahu in an attempt to persuade the United States to block any ICC ruling. And it is no coincidence that Foreign Minister Israel Katz – in anticipation of possible arrest warrants – gave instructions to all Israeli embassies around the world “to immediately prepare for a wave of serious anti-Semitism, anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli outbreaks” . On the 205th day of the war, while the IDF continues to operate in the center of the Strip, the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) announced that it has resumed its humanitarian operations in Gaza, suspended four weeks ago after the IDF for “a serious mistake” had killed 7 of its humanitarian workers in a raid on the cars in which they were travelling. “We are restarting our business – said Erin Gore, CEO of Wck – with the same energy, dignity and attention to feeding as many people as possible”.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
