2024-07-08 11:45:00
There has been recent movement in negotiations regarding a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. But now Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is setting conditions again. Critics question whether or not he even needs an agreement.
Bar Pakula calls into a megaphone. The psychology student stands at an intersection in Tel Aviv and blocks traffic with his friends. They stand up for the hostages in Gaza – and against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They should quit. We won’t let them ruin another deal.”
Hopes have never been so high that a new agreement on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages will be reached in several stages. Because Hamas has fallen on the condition that Israel must first stop all attacks in Gaza.
The details will be further negotiated in the coming days. But shortly before that, Netanyahu again stated some conditions. Armed fighters are not allowed to return to northern Gaza. And arms smuggling from Egypt must be stopped.
In terms of content, these are not entirely new claims. But time brings surprises – for example with the former Israeli army general Ziv.
“It is becoming clear that Netanyahu is doing everything possible to prevent an agreement. Those who are interested in an agreement do not publish their conditions in the media or make new conditions public,” says Ziv. “For something like this, there is a delegation that can introduce conditions within the negotiations.”
A step by step plan is being negotiated
The former military man expressed doubts on Israeli radio that Netanyahu really feels it is his duty to bring the remaining 120 hostages back home. Many of them are said to be dead.
Negotiations on a step-by-step plan will continue in the coming days. In the first phase, Hamas would release women, old people and sick hostages first. In return, Israel would have to release an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners from its prisons.
“A collective suicide we must commit”
Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners want to prevent this. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called such an agreement “collective suicide” on Israeli television.
Stopping the war in a situation where “Hamas is alive, fighting and reforming, or hundreds of terrorists imprisoned for murder are released, who can then go back to murdering Jews,” Smotrich says, “is a challenge it represents a collective suicide that we must not commit.”
Netanyahu’s government partners threaten almost daily to drop out of the coalition if an agreement with Hamas is reached that includes an end to the war.
Netanyahu says he wants a partial agreement
If the war ended, Netanyahu’s government might end. That is why the Prime Minister makes it clear time and time again that Israel must first achieve its war goals.
Just as it was on Israeli television two weeks ago: “I am not ready to end the war and leave Hamas alone,” Netanyahu said. He is willing to make a partial agreement “that brings back some of the people, but leaves us responsible for continuing the war after the truce to achieve our goal, which is to destroy Hamas.”
But many on the streets of Tel Aviv are willing to pay the price: an end to the fight against Hamas now to finally bring the hostages home after nine months.
Björn Dake, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, July 8, 2024 12:54 pm
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