AGI – Yes intensify the efforts of international diplomacy to try to reach a agreement between Israel and Hamas for the release of the hostages and for a ceasefire in Gaza. US President Joe on Sunday evening Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a last attempt to avoid the offensive on Rafah and promote an agreement that gives respite to the Strip, devastated by hunger and famine after almost seven months of war. Biden and Netanyahu, we read in a note from the White House at the end of the phone call, “reviewed the ongoing talks to guarantee the release of the hostages and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza”. Biden, we read further, “referred to his statement with 17 other world leaders asking that Hamas release its citizens without delay to guarantee a ceasefire and aid to the population of Gaza”.
On the table is the proposal from Tel Aviv and Cairo for a ceasefire on which, according to statements by senior Hamas officials, there should be “no major problems”, provided that it is not Israel that poses new obstacles. Hamas has made it known that it will officially respond to the proposal today and, precisely for this reason, the efforts of the mediators, including the USA, are strengthening. A delegation of the Islamist movement, led by Khalil al Hayyadeputy to Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, will arrive in Egypt therefore in a more positive climate perhaps than in the past and, according to Axios, also on the Israeli side, it is the first time in almost seven months of war that the leaders say they are willing to discuss the end of the war.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has meanwhile arrived in Riyadhthe first stage of a new round of talks that will lead to it also in Jordan and IsraelBlinken will meet in the Saudi capital with visiting Arab and European foreign ministers from the Gulf to discuss “day after” plans for rebuilding post-conflict Gaza, a State Department official said.
In the last few hours, however, some Israeli sources have once again weakened hopes of a truce. “Preparations for Rafah continue” they said, and even with a hostage agreement, “Israel will not give up its war objectives.” The Israeli government is facing growing domestic and international pressure to reach an agreement. A pressure that is increasingly driving Netanyahu to the wall, weakened also by an internal conflict in the country. War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz said that if the government rejects the hostage deal, supported by the security services, “it will not have the right to continue to exist.” “The return of our hostages, abandoned by the October 7 government, is urgent,” Gantz wrote on Telegram.
Statements that come after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned that the government will have “no right to exist” unless Israel invades Rafah. In a post on “to the Nazis on the backs of hundreds of IDF soldiers” who died. Smotrich’s words were echoed by far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who tweeted that “an ill-advised deal is equivalent to the dissolution of the government.”
The Israeli authorities estimate that there are still 129 hostages held captive in Gaza, 34 of whom died. The last truce at the end of November allowed the exchange of 80 hostages for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
