As the Israeli army bombs Gaza and carries out raids in the occupied West Bank, Hamas says there will be no agreement on prisoners until the “aggression” stops.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his right-wing coalition government, amid deep disagreements over the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is approaching its 90th day with no end in sight or agreement on pause in hostilities.
Netanyahu on Thursday evening canceled an Israeli war cabinet meeting supposed to discuss the plan for the “aftermath” of the war, after fierce opposition to the meeting from far-right members of the coalition.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, of the ultranationalist Jewish Power party, said the issue was outside the war cabinet’s mandate. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party announced it would hold its own meeting to protest its exclusion from the discussions.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are part of the broader security cabinet but not part of the war cabinet, whose key members are Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition leader Benny Gantz.
“(Smotrich) didn’t want this discussion (the next day) to take place,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Alan Fisher said Friday, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem. “He is strongly opposed to the Palestinian Authority (PA) having any power over Gaza after the war. »
Under such pressure, Netanyahu decided that the war cabinet would not discuss this issue, which will now be taken up by the security cabinet on Tuesday.
The United States has suggested that the Palestinian Authority should govern Gaza once Israel achieves its stated goal of eliminating Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the war.
“Netanyahu canceled the war cabinet, fearing it would fracture his coalition, fracture his government and endanger his position as prime minister,” Fisher said.
The war cabinet was also to “discuss an agreement with Hamas – negotiated by the Americans, Qataris and Egyptians – on the exchange of captives for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons,” our correspondent added.
‘Between the devil and the deep sea’
Ahmed Helal, Global Counsel’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, told Tel Aviv Tribune that canceling the war cabinet meeting had “taken time” as the military establishment and the political elite have moved further apart.
“The military elite have become increasingly uncomfortable over the last ten years, and they are not pacifists in any way – they are not doves. But they understand what is strategically important for Israel and they oppose the overly militaristic ambitions of the civilian government,” Helal said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to make another trip to the Middle East next week to discuss the Gaza war, in which the Israeli military has killed more than 21,000 people in Gaza alone. The revised death toll from the Hamas attack on Israel stands at 1,139.
America’s top diplomat will likely face regional Arab allies who are increasingly demanding a ceasefire, Natali Tocci, director of the Italian think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“At the moment, we don’t see the United States really pressuring Israel for a ceasefire,” Tocci said. “However, as the Egyptian role grows…by calling for a ceasefire, Blinken will essentially find himself between a rock and a hard place.” »
Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip, has played a leading role in promoting a ceasefire, including introducing a plan to end the fighting. This includes exchanges of captives and prisoners between Israel and Hamas.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said Thursday that the group would not release more Israeli prisoners without “a complete and complete cessation of aggressive activities against our people through negotiations aligned with the interests of our people.”
A Hamas delegation is due to visit Cairo on Friday to review Egypt’s plan to end the war, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported, citing a Hamas official.
