Although the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Khan Yunis will not mean the end of hostilities in southern Gaza – “the war is far from stopped,” said Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi yesterday – the religious nationalist ministers of the government of Prime Minister Beniamín Netanyahu have expressed their concern about this scenario. The Israeli Minister of National Security, the far-right and settler Itamar Ben Gvir, threatened this Monday with a breakup of the ruling coalition that keeps the Israeli president in power, if he does not invade Rafah, a plan that is opposed by the United States. , Israel’s main partner.
“If the prime minister (Netanyahu) decides to end the war without an extensive attack on Rafah to defeat Hamas, he will have no mandate to continue serving as prime minister,” Ben Gvir, leader of Jewish Power, said on the social network .
In addition to Netanyahu’s Likud, the ruling coalition is made up of Religious Zionism, Jewish Power and Noam – three far-right and Jewish supremacist parties with racist and homophobic positions – and two ultra-Orthodox parties: Shas and Judaism United by Torah.
In turn, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party, today called on its members to an “urgent” consultation, according to Hebrew media, to address the development of the war and rumors of “advances” in truce negotiations, according to information from the Egyptian channel Al Qahera News.
Smotrich also opposes the lifting of military pressure in Gaza and Netanyahu, as an editorial in the Israeli newspaper Maariv suggests today, “is a hostage to Ben Gvir and Smotrich”, which makes it difficult to reach a truce agreement and only allows him to continue gaining time.
Denying Egyptian information that spoke of “progress” in the negotiations for a ceasefire in the strip, after talks last night in Cairo between Hamas, Israel and mediators from Qatar and the US; Hamas sources told the Qatari channel Al Jazeera and the Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen that “all the attempts and efforts of the mediators to reach an agreement were met with Israeli inflexibility.”
“At the moment there is no progress in the negotiations. If there are any, we will announce it through official channels. “Hamas is complying with their demands, which include a ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the entry of aid, the return of displaced Gazans and a prisoner exchange,” an official told Al Mayadeen on condition of anonymity. .
According to the Egyptian channel Al Qahera News, the American and Israeli delegations are expected to resume negotiations within 48 hours, as well as those of Qatar and Hamas, which would also return to Cairo on Tuesday night, just as Aid al Fitr, the holiday that ends the holy month of Ramadan.
