While the weapons are silent in Gaza, except for some skirmishes in the north of the Strip, the Wall Street Journal dropped the journalistic bomb. Sources from Qatar and Egypt, the main mediators in the hostage and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel, reported that there is strong pressure currently being exerted on both sides for a long-term ceasefire. A truce must extend beyond the current deadline for talks to end the war. The sources explain that this is a scenario in which both Israel and Hamas will have to give up a lot.
The Jewish state must release thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for its soldiers being held hostage in the Gaza Strip’s tunnels. Hamas will also be asked to accept demilitarization. The price that Israel will pay is also high: abandoning the attack on southern Gaza and abandoning the declared goal of the war, which is to eliminate Hamas leaders. Stressing that what is happening in these hours is not just an exercise in diplomacy, as there is the arrival in Doha of the CIA Director, William Burns, who was sent by the White House to negotiate with the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, and the Qatari leadership, to extend the current truce, in order to release the other hostages. It is another sign of the political and diplomatic encirclement that Washington and the other two main players in the issue, Qatar and Egypt, are exerting on Israel, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Jerusalem again.
The head of US diplomacy will once again emphasize Israel’s respect for the laws of war, the release of hostages still in the hands of Hamas, and the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. Late Monday evening, it was a senior US administration official, in a press conference in which El Jornal also participated, who spoke about the pressures being exerted on Benjamin Netanyahu’s war government, in light of the possible second phase of the war: « The beginning and intensified The United States agreed with President Joe Biden in very clear language that “it is extremely important that the conduct of the military campaign ensure that, as it moves south, it does not produce large numbers of displaced people.” The official who requested to remain anonymous.
About two million people currently live in the central and southern regions of the Strip. Further crushing, due to the advance of the Israeli army, would risk causing a humanitarian catastrophe. For this reason, in the first days of the war, the Israeli plan for a “temporary” movement of war refugees from Gaza to Egyptian territory was leaked. It is an idea that Washington immediately said it opposed. The US official said: “You cannot have the same number of displaced people in the south as in the north. That would be beyond the capacity of any humanitarian support.” There would have been a “receptive” reaction from Israel, realizing that “a campaign must be carried out in the south that is different from the one that took place in the north.” The goal, as the official specified, remains “to eliminate Hamas as a ruling force in Gaza and as a threat to Israel.” But the way the war will be conducted in the south of the Strip is of “utmost importance.”
Meanwhile, Hamas is delaying the release of two other US citizens held hostage, who were supposed to be part of the first group of 50 freed prisoners. For now, only four-year-old Abigail Idan, whose parents were killed in the October 7 attacks, has been able to gain freedom.
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