Negotiations suspended and the Israeli offensive on Rafah increasingly imminent. The Middle East continues to heat up and rounds of talks that gave rise to hope for a truce between Hamas and Tel Aviv have instead proved fruitless. Despite the mediation work of Qatar and Egypt, the frost has returned between the parties and new consultations will be started in 24 hours. The reasons for the lack of agreement, according to Hamas, are to be found in the statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the negotiations, considered too harsh by the political leader of the group, Ismail Haniyeh. The former prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority in fact accused the leader of the conservative party of “continuing the aggression and widening the conflict, for sabotaging the efforts made through mediators and various parties”. According to Haniyeh, Hamas, unlike Israel, wants to reach a ceasefire agreement that puts an end to the “aggression”, guarantees the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Gaza Strip and provides for a “serious” prisoner exchange.
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For his part, Netanyahu has been very harsh in his public statements: he has in fact reiterated that his executive “will not accept requests from Hamas whose meaning is surrender” nor the withdrawal of the land forces of the Jewish state from the Strip. “We are not ready to accept a situation in which Hamas battalions emerge from their bunkers, regain control of Gaza, rebuild their military infrastructure and return to threaten the citizens of Israel in neighboring communities, in the cities of the south, in all areas of the country – said the prime minister – Israel will continue to fight until all its objectives are achieved”. Statements which echo those of the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who in the last few hours has underlined Israel’s desire to ” quickly obtain the release of the hostages by stopping our operations.”
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Netanyahu’s right-hand man who also attacked Hamas, saying he was worried because “Hamas does not intend to reach an agreement with us” and, he assured, this “means that the operation in Rafah will begin in the immediate future”. Statements that are being followed by IDF actions. According to the “Times of Israel” the Israeli armed forces have in fact asked the Palestinian population to evacuate the neighborhoods of the eastern part of Rafah, in view of a large-scale offensive. Requests from the Tel Aviv army reiterated on .
