12/1/2024–|Last updated: 12/1/202402:13 AM (Mecca time)
The White House said, on Saturday evening, that there is an agreement currently on the table to stop the war and increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, noting that there is an “important opportunity” to reach an agreement, as President Joe Biden mentioned last week.
This comes as Israeli media sources reported that the security establishment in Israel believes that it has reached a stage where it can end the Gaza war and return the detainees.
The White House confirmed that “President Biden will continue to work to reach an agreement to release our citizens through diplomacy and pressure on (the Islamic Resistance Movement) Hamas with sanctions.”
He added, “We will use legal measures and other measures to put pressure on Hamas. The war in Gaza could end tomorrow and could have ended months ago if it had agreed to release the hostages.”
Possible solutions
On the other hand, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported – citing unnamed sources – that the security establishment in Israel believes that it has reached a stage where it can end the Gaza war and return the detainees.
The newspaper said that the negotiating team is working around the clock to create conditions and find possible solutions for the prisoner exchange deal.
She also stressed that there will be no basis for an exchange deal if the Israeli government does not take a decision to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
Families of prisoners
On the other hand, the mother of the captured Israeli soldier in Gaza, Idan Alexander, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured her that the conditions had been ripe for reaching a prisoner exchange deal.
The mother of the prisoner, whose video was broadcast by the Al-Qassam Brigades, added that this is what all Israelis want.
She addressed Netanyahu, saying, “I address you, Netanyahu, in my name, in the name of my family, and in the name of the entire Israeli people. You must fulfill the promise you made to me, because the eyes are now only looking in your direction and waiting for you to make a courageous decision.”
Meanwhile, thousands demonstrated in several locations in Israel to demand a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, including Haifa in the north, Beersheba in the south, and the city of Jerusalem.
The demonstrations came at the invitation of the Prisoners’ Families Committee on the first anniversary of the conclusion of the first exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.
Haaretz newspaper said that thousands, including freed prisoners, participated in a demonstration in downtown Tel Aviv and raised slogans demanding the immediate arrival of an exchange deal.
The families of the prisoners accused Netanyahu of obstructing the deal for political considerations, and called for an end to the war in Gaza.
The families of Israeli prisoners said that the way to return their children to Gaza is through ending the war there as part of a deal.
She added – during a press conference in Tel Aviv – that Netanyahu and Ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich want to establish settlements on the heads of Israeli prisoners in Gaza, noting that Netanyahu is the one obstructing the exchange deal and rejecting it.
Blocking the deal
It is noteworthy that the opposition, the families of the prisoners, and a large segment of the Israeli street accuse Netanyahu of obstructing reaching a deal with Hamas to return the prisoners and end the war, for fear of the collapse of his government amid threats from extremist ministers in it to withdraw from the government coalition if that happens.
With American support, since October 7, 2023, Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip that left more than 149,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst disasters. Humanity in the world.
Israel continues its massacres, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to end them immediately, and the orders of the International Court of Justice to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.