Beniamin Netanyahu pulled the strings once more yesterday, waiting for a response from Hamas to the latest Israeli proposal for a cease-fire and exchange of prisoners. “We will do whatever is necessary to defeat our enemy, even in Rafah,” he said after pointing out that “there were and are differences of opinion between us regarding operations in distant places – that is , Iran– and nearby –Gaza and Lebanon–. But at the end of the discussion I made a decision, and the decision was made. We performed there and we will perform here too.”
The insistence on a land invasion of Rafah, in the southern tip of Gaza, seems incompatible with the Israeli proposal itself. Hamas, however, despite a formal rejection, yesterday still seemed willing to negotiate. The Palestinian organization extended the deadline for a response, saying it would go to Cairo in a couple of days, but noted in its message – delivered by Egyptian mediators after a telephone conversation between Hamas political chief Ismail Hanieh, and the head of Egyptian intelligence, AbbasKamel – that it is about “completing the current discussions with the aim of reaching an agreement that meets the demands of our people and that stops the aggression”.
In summary, Hanieh said that the proposal is being studied with a “positive spirit”, and according to the same Egyptian sources, “most of the proposal received the acceptance of the movement both inside and outside ” of Palestine. This would mean that there would be no discrepancies between the military branch, in Gaza, and the political branch of Hamas, outside.
According to the Qatari portal Al-Jadeed al-Arabi, there have been intense contacts between Hamas and Israel, with positive results regarding a gradual withdrawal of troops from Gaza and the return of the population to the north of the strip, which would be accompanied by truces in three phases of 40 and 42 days, up to a total of 124 days, in which the inflow of humanitarian aid would increase. According to this plan, delivered to Hamas by Egyptian mediation on Friday and the content of which was disclosed yesterday by the Lebanese media Al-Akhbar, throughout the process there would be changes of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners by age and gender, up to a total of 133 captives in the hands of Hamas and 1,290 Palestinian prisoners.
The obstacle, naturally, is Rafah. Ossama Hamdan, head of international relations for, told the Lebanese channel “if the enemy launches an aggressive ground operation in Rafah negotiations will stop because the resistance – that is, Hamas – does not negotiate under fire”.
Netanyahu’s intentions – or at least his repeated statements about attacking Rafah with or without agreement – would damage not only the release of the Israeli hostages but also a normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia. This was announced this week in Tel Aviv by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, according to the Times of Israel. It must be remembered that the Hamas attack on October 7 had as a matter of substance the torpedoing of any possibility of formalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, the United States is on track to negotiate a separate security agreement with the Saudis.
Meanwhile, the bombing of Gaza continues, killing 28 people yesterday. In addition, the death in an Israeli prison of the doctor Adnan al-Burx, head of orthopedics at the Al-Xifa hospital and who was arrested while working at the Al-Awada hospital, in the north of the strip Dr. Al-Burx died on April 19. According to the Palestinian authorities, 496 Palestinian doctors and health workers have died since October 7.
