Israel – A source in the Israeli negotiating team accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday of obstructing reaching an agreement for a prisoner exchange with the Palestinian factions and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and held him responsible if the negotiations failed.
While Netanyahu is trying to throw the ball into the factions’ court, sources inside Israel accuse him of being the one obstructing the negotiations with his new demands.
The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted an unnamed source in the negotiating team on Wednesday as saying that Netanyahu “does not stop making new demands to obstruct the negotiations.”
The Authority explained that the source was referring to Netanyahu’s insistence on Israel remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt, and the Netzarim Corridor, which divides the Gaza Strip into two parts.
The source added, “The responsibility for the outcome (the possibility of the failure of the negotiations) will lie with Netanyahu.”
He added that “a number of members of the Israeli negotiating team have been working in Qatar during the last few days and until yesterday, in desperate attempts to save the chances of reaching a deal,” without further details.
The Broadcasting Authority pointed out that Netanyahu denied the statements of the Israeli source.
The Prime Minister’s Office said it was “another fake news from those who echo the false campaign of Hamas, which, unlike Netanyahu, rejected the American proposal and refrained from attending the negotiations,” it claimed.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said: “Israel will not leave the Philadelphi Road and the Netzarim Corridor under any circumstances despite the enormous pressure to do so.. and I am not sure that an agreement will be reached.”
Following this, the Broadcasting Authority quoted sources in the Israeli negotiating team as saying that “Netanyahu’s statements aim to undermine the negotiations.”
On Tuesday evening, Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand an agreement, and the families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza said, via the “X” platform, that Netanyahu’s statements “are practically considered a thwarting of the deal.”
She added: “There is no hope or heroism in the continued death of all the kidnapped (prisoners in Gaza). The government abandoned the kidnapped on October 7, and is now abandoning them forever.”
On August 15 and 16, the Qatari capital, Doha, hosted a round of talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and prisoner exchange.
At the end of this round, the mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States announced, via a statement, that Washington had presented a new agreement proposal to reduce the gaps between Israel and the factions’ movement, revealing further talks in Cairo before the end of this week.
Although the American side spoke about the Doha talks proceeding in a “positive atmosphere,” Netanyahu announced his adherence to conditions that the factions’ movement rejects.
These conditions include “controlling the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing, and preventing the return of Palestinian faction fighters to northern Gaza (by inspecting returnees through the Netzarim corridor).”
The factions movement said that what the movement’s leadership was informed of about the results of the Doha ceasefire meetings is a retreat from what was agreed upon on July 2, based on the agreement proposal announced by US President Joe Biden at the end of May.
Anatolia
#Israeli #source #Netanyahu #responsible #swap #deal #negotiations #fail
2024-08-21 14:04:36
