Eight months after the start of the war, both sides remain firm on their conditions for a ceasefire. The United States believes that certain changes wanted by Hamas are “feasible” and that “others” are not.
:quality(50)/2023/07/05/64a55fd777de4_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 5 min
:quality(50)/2024/06/13/075-fathi-notitle240611-npxgj-666a85b909a06639751344.jpg)
“It’s time to stop the bargaining”, launched Antony Blinken on Wednesday June 12. At the end of a tour of the Middle East, the head of American diplomacy called on Israel and Hamas to agree on a truce agreement in the Gaza Strip. “More [la guerre] lasts, the more people will suffer”, he recalled. Supported by Qatari, American and Egyptian mediation, this truce, long awaited by Gazans and the families of Israeli hostages, has been perceived as close on several occasions since the start of the year, without ever coming to fruition.
On Tuesday, Hamas announced that it had given Qatar and Egypt its response to the plan announced on May 31 by American President Joe Biden. The content of this response has not been revealed, but Antony Blinken said that “some changes” demanded by the Islamist movement were “feasible” while “others” were not. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that he would continue the war until Hamas was defeated.
Hamas demands new timetable for ceasefire
In the plan presented by Joe Biden on May 31, and voted on Monday by the UN Security Council, for a “total and complete ceasefire”Israeli forces are expected to withdraw from “all populated areas of Gaza” for six weeks. However, Hamas amended this proposal. According to two senior officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, close to the Palestinian movement, Hamas wants Israel to withdraw from two Gazan corridors in the first week of the truce, quotes the New York Times.
The routes concerned are likely the “Philadelphia Corridor”, along the Egyptian border, which Israel announced had ended at the end of May, and the Netzarim Corridor, which crosses the Gaza Strip from east to west. This 6 kilometer road was built by the Israeli army in February in order to carry out raids in the north and center of Gaza, while allowing Israel to control access to the north of the territory, recalls Times of Israel. According to the Israeli daily HaaretzHamas also demands that from the third day of the truce, Israel withdraw from the Salah al-Din road, which connects the Gaza Strip from north to south.
Hamas sets conditions for release of Israeli hostages
In his plan, Joe Biden estimates that if the ceasefire is respected, “some” Israeli hostages – women, elderly, injured or sick – will be released and some bodies returned to their families. The last hostages with American nationality will return “at home” and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will also be released.
But on this point, Hamas proposes another plan. According to Haaretz, the Palestinian movement intends to release three hostages – alive and dead – every three days, for a total of 33 people. To date, 116 people are still detained in the Palestinian territory. Hamas also does not want released Palestinian prisoners removed from the Gaza Strip, and it wants their release to be determined by time spent in Israeli prisons.
For its part, Israel reiterated its intransigence on the subject. “Israel’s conditions for stopping the war have not changed”Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, citing “the destruction of Hamas’s military and government capabilities, the release of all hostages and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
Discussions are weakened by divisions within the Israeli government
Internally, the Israeli government is divided on the version of the ceasefire plan. On Monday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that Benjamin Netanyahu was judging him “incomplete” and was determined to continue the war until Hamas was eliminated.
Far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to leave the government if this agreement comes into force. In messages on the social network X, Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, called the proposal “victory for terrorism and a risk for Israel’s security”, while Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, affirmed that he “will not take[it] not part of a government which would accept the proposed plan”.
In contrast, the leader of the Israeli opposition, Yaïr Lapid, said he supported the road map supported by Washington. “The Israeli government cannot ignore President Biden’s important speech”he wrote on X. These divisions reached their peak on Sunday with the resignation of Benny Gantz, the centrist leader who joined the war cabinet after October 7 for a position without a specific portfolio. “Netanyahu is preventing us from moving towards real victory. This is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart but without regrets.”he accused during a speech on television.
Israel is accused of deliberately prolonging the war
In an interview with the American magazine Timeorganized on May 28 before the presentation of the ceasefire plan, Joe Biden tackled the Israeli Prime Minister, claiming that he was dragging out the war in Gaza for his own political survival. “There is every reason for people to draw this conclusion”, he said. The US president acknowledged that he particularly disagreed with the prime minister on the need to create a Palestinian state after the war. “What happens after the end of [la guerre à] Gaza? (…) We need a two-state solution.” he decided.
A few days later, however, the American executive tempered its speech. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan assured that Israel was willing to move forward on the path to an agreement. “Hamas is now the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire” in Gaza, added Joe Biden during a telephone conversation with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.