The atmosphere is heating up in Israel. Benny Gantz, Israel’s war cabinet minister and centrist leader, will speak this evening as his ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expires. Gantz had called for an agreed plan on the Gaza conflict that would include who could govern the territory if Hamas was defeated.
In all likelihood, however – the media underlined – Gantz will announce his withdrawal from the government, even if he was pressured to stay, and even Washington tried to convince him to delay his exit. Into this chaos, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to arrive next Monday. The visit – the umpteenth to the country since the start of the war – takes place to once again seek an agreement for the truce in Gaza and the release of the hostages.
American diplomatic action has so far failed to resolve the crisis, but US President Joe Biden takes some credit and is proud of his result: he underlined in an interview with ABC how Netanyahu has listened to US concerns on the military operation in Rafah. “They were about to enter Rafah, at full force… They didn’t,” he specified. As for the proposed agreement, the occupant of the White House stated: “We must obtain a ceasefire”, recognizing however that “it is a very difficult moment”. The offer was presented as “Israeli” but sparked internal conflicts within the government of the Jewish state, in particular with the far right wing.
As the international community continues to work to stop the war, Qatar has reportedly given Hamas an ultimatum to accept the ceasefire agreement. Otherwise, members of the Palestinian organization could be expelled from Doha.
CNN reported it. The United States has put strong pressure on members of the Israeli government to agree to the pact, the Jerusalem Post also writes. But CNN itself revealed that the US also replicated the same attitude on Qatar to obtain the green light from Hamas for the negotiations. But there’s more. A high-level Egyptian source revealed to al Qahira al Ekhbariya television that the Palestinian group will give its response on the ceasefire proposal put forward by Washington within a few days. Egypt has held extensive meetings and contacts in the last few hours to resume negotiations. The source added that Cairo has received positive signals from Hamas.
In the meantime, the discontent of the Israeli population has not subsided over what happened on that tragic 7 October, the unforgettable bloody Shabbat, and we would like to understand well what happened and what didn’t work. Netanyahu and members of his government have refused to take responsibility for the failures that preceded the massive Hamas attack, which saw 3,000 terrorists storm across the border into Israel, kill around 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many of whom they also suffered acts of violence. Netanyahu’s cabinet secretary, Yossi Fuchs, however, in response to a request from the state attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, explained: “Israel is in the midst of a ferocious war, the time is not yet ripe” for a commission state investigation into the government’s handling of the Hamas attack.
Meanwhile, the news has leaked from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Netanyahu will speak to the United States Congress on July 24th, but Gantz’s speech this evening will now have an impact and could remove support for the government.
