FROM THE ENCOUNTER IN BEIRUT. It is a tug-of-war between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and American President Joe Biden over the truce in Gaza. Diplomatic work had come to a turning point this morning. The Egyptian mediators had convinced all Palestinian militant groups to accept the immediate ceasefire. France had filed the resolution for the UN Security Council, and all powers, including the US, were ready to accept it. Diplomatic sources were leaking that the truce could already start from six in the morning. But Netanyahu disagreed. Late in the morning, he summoned representatives from seventy countries to explain that Israel’s goal was to “degrade” Hamas’s offensive capabilities, to “maximize the period of quiet and tranquility obtainable from this campaign.” Pressed by questions about the truce, he replied that “we do not act with the stopwatch in hand, we must be sure that we have achieved our objectives, we do not exclude anything, not even a reoccupation of the Strip”, namely the much feared land operation.
In the White House the red alarm has sounded. The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, with the number of victims rising to 227, half of which are women and minors. Many families send their children to the homes of relatives and friends, to avoid everyone dying in a raid. And the front risks spreading to Lebanon. In the afternoon Palestinian militants launched another four rockets from the Tire area in the south, and the Iron Dome, the anti-aircraft system, had to intervene because at least one was in danger of hitting Haifa, another fell in an uninhabited area.
The Israeli artillery returned fire, without doing any damage. Biden called Netanyahu and told him he “expects a significant de-escalation today, ahead of a cease-fire.” Almost an intimation to the ally, with tones that had not been seen so far. Netanyahu has not reacted at the moment but the diplomatic machine has restarted at full capacity. The goal remains to reach an end to hostilities tomorrow, with an agreement along the lines of the one signed in 2014.