Opposition leader and member of the Israeli war cabinet, Benny Gantz, met yesterday with US Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington. The meeting took place a day after Harris pressured Hamas to sign a ceasefire agreement. Gantz, a former general and centrist political rival of Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu, challenges the Israeli president with a trip that includes meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
A source from Likud, Netanyahu’s right-wing party, said that Gantz did not have the premier’s approval for his meetings in Washington and that the president had a “tough talk” with him, underscoring the growing gap that exists within the party. leadership of Israel, almost five months after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
In his meeting with Gantz, Harris pushed for a temporary ceasefire agreement that would allow the release of hostages. “Given the immense scale of the suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table,” Harris said on Sunday. The agreement “will allow the hostages to be removed from Gaza and the Strip to obtain a significant amount of aid,” he added. Furthermore, “it would allow us to build something more lasting to ensure that Israel is safe and respect the right of the Palestinian people to dignity, freedom and self-determination,” the vice president concluded.
For his part, with his trip Gantz intends to strengthen ties with the US, reinforce support for Israel’s war and pressure for the release of Israeli hostages.
Gantz’s visit to Washington also comes after the US began airdrops of aid to Gaza over the weekend, a few days after more than a hundred Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to obtain food from a convoy. of trucks.
Faced with more than 30,000 people dead and a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, Egypt, Qatar, the US and Hamas resumed negotiations in Cairo, with “significant progress,” as revealed on Sunday by a television station close to the services. Egyptian intelligence.
On the other hand, Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed bin Abderraman al Thani also arrived in Washington yesterday to meet with Blinken.
To accept an agreement, Hamas demands the return of displaced people to northern Gaza, an increase in humanitarian aid, and a definitive ceasefire and Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza. Israel, which refuses to participate in the Cairo negotiations until Hamas provides a list of the hostages that would be released, rejects these conditions and assures that it wants to continue its military operations until the total elimination of the Palestinian group.
