Gaza Ceasefire… Egypt Doubts Israel’s Intention to Conclude Deal

Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)
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Gaza Ceasefire… Egypt Doubts Israel’s Intention to Conclude Deal

Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian women walk next to destroyed houses following Israeli military operation in Al Maghazi refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 17 February 2024. (EPA)

While the Israeli government on Thursday directed its negotiators to resume talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage swap deal, Egypt doubted Israel’s seriousness about concluding a “deal” with Hamas.
“The Israeli position is still not ready for a ceasefire and hostage swap deal,” a high-ranking Egyptian source told the Cairo News channel.
Earlier, media reports said the Israeli government decided to resume the “Gaza truce” negotiations and a hostage swap deal.
This came after Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egyptian State Information Service, said on Wednesday night that “Attempts to cast doubt and offend Egypt’s mediation efforts... will only lead to further complications of the situation in Gaza and the entire region and may push Egypt to completely withdraw from its mediation in the current conflict.”
Several experts told Asharq Al-Awsat on Thursday that Egypt’s threats could have pushed Israel to resume talks with mediators.
However, they doubted the seriousness of Israel's sudden decision to continue negotiations, describing the move as “a new maneuver that serves Israel’s own interests.”
Hamas has lately accepted a proposal by mediators for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange. But, Israel said the proposal remained “far from” meeting its demands and warned its military operations in Rafah would continue.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement: “The war cabinet has instructed the negotiation team to continue negotiations to return the hostages.”
The Walla website reported that Israel has also presented “amended guidelines for its negotiating team.”
However, it neither revealed details or explained the reasons for Israel’s sudden decision to continue negotiations. The website also failed to say whether the Israel negotiating team carries a new proposal or has returned with amendments to Cairo’s previous proposal.
On Thursday, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in an interview that Egypt is “an important country for Israel.”
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been for months trying to strike a phased agreement between Israel and Hamas that would lead to truce in Gaza and the gradual release of Israeli hostages held in the territory.
Former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister, Ambassador Rakha Ahmed Hassan, considered Israel's sudden return to negotiations as a new US-Israeli maneuver to face international condemnations for the failure of both countries to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“Israel wants to continue negotiations for its own interests,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Hassan also said that the Israeli negotiation team might return for talks with new proposals, different from the Cairo initiative that was supposed to be implemented in three phases.
He assumed that Egypt’s threats could have pushed this new course of negotiations.
The threats of the head of the State Information Service, to completely withdraw from mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas, have pushed the Israeli government to direct its negotiation team to continue negotiations, Hassan noted.
He then affirmed that negotiations will resume soon.
“Cairo will adhere to clear points related to the Israeli withdrawal from the Rafah crossing and the Salah al-Din (Philadelphia) axis to bring about serious talks,” Hassan said.
In return, Bashir Abdel-Fattah, a Researcher at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that Israel's return to negotiations should not be accompanied by optimism.
“Israel is only trying to buy time and show the world its faith in peace,” he said.

 



Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.