The clock is ticking waiting to know if Israel and Hamas will be able to agree on a humanitarian ceasefire that would allow a new pause in the Gaza war, something that has not happened since November. Ismael Haniye, senior leader of the Islamic Movement, highlighted this Thursday “the positive spirit of his group when analyzing the truce proposal” and announced that a new delegation will return “soon” to Cairo. His words varied the negative tone used in recent days by other senior officials, who considered the enemy’s humanitarian recess offer as a trap, especially after hearing Benjamin Netanyahu say that he will attack Rafah “with or without an agreement” on a ceasefire. .
Haniye had a telephone conversation with the head of Egyptian Intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and confirmed that “the negotiating delegation will arrive in Cairo as soon as possible to complete the ongoing discussions with the aim of maturing an agreement that meets the demands of our people and stop the aggression.
While waiting to hear Hamas’s response, the Hebrew war cabinet met again in Tel Aviv. The Israelis propose a first humanitarian truce of forty days in which the enemy must free 33 captive civilians and in exchange more than six hundred prisoners will be released.
Complete withdrawal
The problem is that before agreeing to an initial short-term ceasefire and a partial release of hostages, Hamas wants guarantees that the eventual release of all hostages will bring an end to Israel’s offensive and its complete withdrawal from Gaza. Israel has only offered a pause after which it would resume its offensive. Netanyahu reiterated his determination to attack Rafah in his conversation with Antony Blinken in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Since the outbreak of the war, a certain distance has been perceived between Hamas leaders inside and outside the Strip and it is those who remain inside who have the last word. Israeli TV Channel 12, citing unnamed Hamas sources, noted that the group’s leader Yahya Sinwar has three specific demands that Egyptian mediators are trying to resolve. First of all, he demands a guaranteed end to the war, with “a written obligation for the unconditional end of the fighting,” in the words of the channel’s journalist, Ehud Yaari.
Sinwar also opposes giving Israel the right to exclude from the prisoner list and release those with blood crimes. Finally, according to Channel 12, the leader of Hamas in the Strip demands specific details about the materials that will not be allowed in Gaza for its reconstruction. Sinwar spent twenty-three years in Hebrew prisons, in very harsh conditions, and now he is the one who has the final say when it comes to accepting or not the enemy’s proposal.
While the future of a possible truce is being debated, Turkey made its move and, more than six months after the start of the war, suspended all commercial relations with Israel. The Ottomans decided to stop all imports and exports, Bloomberg reported citing two Turkish officials.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, reacted through X, where he addressed Recep Tayyip Erdogan to say that “this is how a dictator behaves, ignoring the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen and ignoring international trade agreements.”
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