Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a meeting with relatives of hostages from far-right groups that if there is a truce agreement in Gaza it will be temporary and that Israel will not abandon, as Hamas demands, military control of the Philadelphia corridor, the dividing line with Egypt, even if it costs the release of hostages.
“Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) spoke of a temporary ceasefire, in order to repatriate the hostages that we all love, but he did not speak of the withdrawal or reduction of forces from the Gaza Strip,” the Gevurah group said in X.
Netanyahu met with representatives of the Gevurah and Tikva minority groups, made up of ultra-nationalist families of kidnapped and killed soldiers in Gaza, who advocate military pressure rather than a negotiated settlement, in front of the Hostage Families Forum, which brings together most of the loved ones of the 105 captives who remain in the enclave.
Israel’s main goal is to finish off Hamas
The Israeli president confirmed that, while freeing the maximum number of hostages is one objective of the war, the main objective remains the elimination of Hamas and “achieving victory,” which is why Israel cannot hand over any of its “strategic security assets”; in an allusion to the military control it now maintains over the Rafah crossing, the Philadelphia corridor and the Netzarim corridor.
Israel wants to maintain control of the Philadelphia corridor, a porous border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt that Hamas used for arms smuggling until Israeli troops took control of it last June. It is home to the Rafah crossing, the main gateway for humanitarian aid from the Sinai until May, when the army occupied the Palestinian side and closed it.
The Netzarim corridor is a new military route created by Israel during the war that splits the Strip in two halves down the center.
Hamas calls latest draft a “coup”
The Islamist group Hamas on Tuesday described the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, which the US says Israel has accepted, as a “coup”, saying it does not include two of its main demands: a comprehensive ceasefire in the Strip and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the enclave.
“What was recently presented to the movement constitutes a coup against what the parties reached on July 2, based on Biden’s own statement of May 31 and Security Council Resolution 2735 of June 11, and is seen as an American response and acquiescence to terrorist Netanyahu’s new conditions,” the group said in a statement today.
Hamas also called “misleading” statements made last night by US President Joe Biden, who said that the group is “moving away” from the possibility of reaching an agreement, and in the text reiterated that it is “eager” to end the Israeli aggression.
“We reaffirm our commitment to what we agreed with the mediators on July 2, based on Biden’s proposal and the Security Council resolution,” Hamas urged.
The June and July Truce Drafts
The US presented several draft truces in June and July, which Hamas accepted a priori, but recently Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added new conditions, such as Israeli control of the so-called Philadelphia corridors – the border between the Strip and Egypt used for years by Islamists for arms smuggling – and Netzarin, a military route created by Israel that divides the enclave in two.
Moreover, according to leaks to the media, the latest proposal only includes the possibility of a permanent ceasefire in a second phase, under conditions to be negotiated once the first phase of the agreement is completed, and allows Israel to resume its “military operations” if Hamas fails to comply with Israeli demands.
The text also does not include a comprehensive withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas.
Egypt asks Israel for “a sincere political wish”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelaty expressed “hope that the next round of negotiations will show a sincere Israeli political desire to stop the war in the Gaza Strip” during a meeting with his US counterpart Antony Blinken, according to a statement from his department.
He also insisted that a truce in Gaza would put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave and prevent the escalation of violence and tension in the Middle East from “getting out of control and escalating to a level that threatens the stability of the entire region.”
Abdelaty and Blinken met on Tuesday in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Al Alamein, where the US official also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, as part of his ninth tour of the Middle East since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7.
Hamas shows its reluctance
Hamas also notes that the new proposals substantially change those that US President Joe Biden presented a few months ago and which the Palestinian organization accepted as valid, before Israel rejected them.
In fact, Hamas decided not to send a delegation to the Doha negotiations because it was asking for what had been agreed in previous months to be implemented based on Biden’s proposal.
According to a Hamas source who spoke to EFE, the latest proposal does not address a complete withdrawal from Gaza, nor from the two corridors currently occupied by Israel, Netzarim (which divides the Strip in two) and Philadelphia, which connects Gaza with Egypt.
Israel and Egypt do not understand each other either
This is precisely one of the points that Israel and Egypt are also at odds with, given that the Jewish State is advocating – according to the latest proposal – to maintain a reduced presence in that corridor, while Cairo is seeking a complete withdrawal.
Blinken’s visit comes in a week in which truce negotiations are expected to resume, and the meetings that began last week in Doha, where the United States presented a proposal to “close the gaps” that exist to reach a ceasefire, are to continue.
Jerusalem / EFE
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2024-08-20 19:39:37