The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, affirmed yesterday in Tel-Aviv the determination to achieve “now” a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas. He insisted a lot, while the Islamist organization claimed that it would respond as soon as possible. Yesterday evening, Hamas announced in a message to the Associated Press agency that it would respond today through Egyptian mediators. This seemed likely to spoil the situation, since the Israeli Government had given a deadline of only until the evening, saying that, if there was an answer, it would send its negotiators to Cairo. Indeed, he did send them before the Hamas message, according to the Israeli press.
The Israeli counter offer of a truce (the number of proposals on both sides is already confusing) included the exchange of 33 hostages – in a first phase – for an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners, in addition to the return of Gazans displaced to the north, all during a 40-day truce. However, the Palestinian Islamists have not changed their initial demands, such as a comprehensive end to the war.
Antony Blinken, who met with Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, praised the proposal for a truce in Gaza presented to Hamas, which he described as “very intelligent” and “extraordinarily generous”. The Palestinian group “needs to say yes”, he told relatives of people kidnapped by the Islamist group who were waiting for him in front of the hotel, according to the Haaretz newspaper.
A senior Hamas leader, Sami Abu Zuhri, considered that “Blinken’s comments contradict reality. It is not strange that Blinken, known as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, not of America, makes this statement”. Abu Zuhri pointed out to Reuters that “even the Israeli negotiating team admitted that Netanyahu was the one standing in the way of reaching an agreement.”
Yesterday, Netanyahu again showed himself implacable in the plans to invade Rafah, in the south of Gaza, “with or without agreement”. In the meeting with Blinken, the Israeli prime minister insisted that he would not accept a deal that included an end to the war in Gaza. Binken insisted that “an operation” now in Rafah reduces the chances of an agreement to release the hostages, and, moreover, would affect a normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia. Blinken reiterated the same to ministers Benny Gantz and Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog.
Netanyahu reiterated that, even if the truce was achieved, the land invasion in the south of the strip, where close to half of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants are concentrated right now, would be ruled out. “The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all its goals is not foreseen in the discussion,” Netanyahu added in a meeting with relatives of abductees and victims of the October 7 attack, referring to the three goals that he has set in these almost seven months of war: to recover the hostages, to eradicate the military force of Hamas and to ensure that Gaza ceases to be a “threat” for Israel.
Before the visit to Jerusalem, Blinken on Tuesday visited the first convoy of Jordanian aid trucks heading to Gaza through a crossing recently opened by Israel through the Erez Pass, north of the strip. Blinken called for further action in this direction.
However, a group of Israeli settlers attacked two Jordanian aid convoys bound for Gaza early yesterday, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country. Four men who “blocked aid trucks (going) to Gaza” near the large West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim were arrested by Israeli police, Honenu, an Israeli legal aid agency, reported. According to a Jordanian official, the food shipment would supply between 100 and 150 families for about a week.
Jordan, which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel and has a large Palestinian population, is particularly sensitive to tensions in the neighboring Palestinian territories. In mid-April, Amman shot down Iranian drones fired at Israel. While collaborating with the United States, the Jordanian kingdom wants to avoid being affected by a possible conflict.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned on Tuesday that the Israeli incursion into Rafah would represent an “unbearable escalation” that would have a “devastating impact” on the Palestinian enclave itself, which would “kill thousands of civilians”, but also on the occupied West Bank and throughout the region. Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths added that the improvements in aid delivery that Israel and the United States are planning for Gaza “cannot justify an Israeli offensive in Rafah.”
