Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel has rejected a request to UNRWA director general Philippe Lazzarini to enter Gaza. This was reported by Kan TV.
Rafah remains in Benjamin Netanyahu’s sights, with or without an agreement with Hamas for a long-lasting truce. Despite the optimism for an agreement that should materialize in the negotiations in Cairo in the next 48 hours, the Israeli prime minister insists – at least in words – in claiming the necessity of the military operation in the southernmost city of Gaza, full of displaced Palestinians .
During a meeting with representatives of the families of the approximately 130 Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas since 7 October, Netanyahu reiterated that “the idea of ending the war before achieving all our objectives is unacceptable”. “We – he explained – we will enter Rafah and annihilate all the Hamas battalions there, with or without an agreement, to achieve total victory“.
A move however that he must reckon with the clear opposition of the United Stateswho do not want the ground operation, as well as the UN (“it would be an intolerable escalation”, according to Secretary General Guterres), and with the specter of possible arrest warrants for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for both the prime minister and other members of Israel’s political-military leadership.
It is no coincidence that Netanyahu denounced that Court has ‘no authority over Israel’ and that any warrants would be “an anti-Semitic hate crime.” It is now up to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his umpteenth mission, starting this evening, to Israel to push for the agreement which seems to be in the home stretch and to make the rumored ICC initiative the key with Netanyahu to remove the military operation to Rafah, for which the IDF already has plans ready.
The rumors about the agreement reported by the Wall Street Journal involve two phases: the first with the release of at least 20 hostages in 3 weeks for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners; the second includes a 10-week ceasefire during which Hamas and Israel would agree to a broader release of hostages and an extended pause in fighting that could last up to a year.
Such an important objective, almost 7 months after the start of the war, that pushed Blinken to contact Hamas directly to ask the Palestinian faction to accept the proposal “without further delay”.
Meanwhile, the specter of The Hague for Israel is taking on increasingly clear contours given that the ICC investigators, according to Reuters, have collected testimonies from the staff of the two major hospitals in Gaza. “The sources, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said that ICC investigators took testimonies from staff who worked at Gaza City’s main hospital, Al Shifa, and at Nasser, the largest hospital in Khan Younis”.
“The possibility that the ICC will issue arrest warrants for war crimes against IDF commanders and state leaders is a scandal on a historic scale“, Netanyahu replied. “It will be the first time that a democratic country, fighting for its existence according to all the rules of international law, will be accused of war crimes. If it were to happen – the Israeli prime minister thundered – it would be an indelible stain on all humanity. An anti-Semitic hate crimewhich would add fuel to anti-Semitism.”
Meanwhile, on the 207th day of conflict, we are beginning to glimpse the concreteness of the continuity of humanitarian aid in Gaza. US Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that “the temporary pier for the entry of aid into Gaza will be completed in the next few days” as construction work is proceeding “very quickly”. Centcom also released images of the pier built off the coast of the Strip. The photos show crews from several naval vessels building the platform, which will cost around $320 million.
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