FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – The minutes pass, the seconds tick by, but the digital clock cannot time the anguish that has lasted for 206 days. The families of Keith Siegel and Omri Miran speak together under the large numbers that illuminate the Hostages Square in red, as the quadrilateral of white stones in front of the contemporary art museum in Tel Aviv has been renamed. Hamas released the video of the two prisoners last Saturday, now the relatives are shouting at the government that «there is no more time to waste, we risk not bringing home even those who are still alive. The agreement must be accepted.”
The agreement that the Egyptians above all are negotiating provides for a long pause in the fighting, up to 40 days, in exchange for the release in a first phase of 33 women, minors, elderly and sick people: those still alive in these categories, the The Israelis initially asked for 40.
They would be followed by soldiers and men under 50, with the aim – reveals the CNN broadcaster – of arriving “to re-establish a situation of calm”, effectively the end of the war. This is what the fundamentalist leaders, who are evaluating the document, demand: today the team led by David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, also arrives in Cairo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always ruled out that any pact could mean a definitive stop to the military operation ordered after the massacres of 7 October, where 1,200 Israelis were killed. The allies of the messianic far right are threatening to blow up his government, they consider the terms a surrender and want the army to proceed with the offensive on Rafah, the last square kilometers towards the border with Egypt, where yesterday the bombings killed 25 Palestinians, in total almost 35 thousand died.
The most optimistic are the Egyptians. “We took into account the positions of both parties,” comments Sameh Shoukry, the Foreign Minister, from Riyadh. In the Saudi capital he met Antony Blinken: «The leaders of Hamas have received an extremely generous proposal, they must decide and they must decide quickly. If they refuse, they will be the ones to prolong the war.”
Avi Issacharoff, the creator of the TV series Fauda and an expert on Palestinian issues, is convinced that at the moment the obstacle is Yahya Sinwar, the boss of bosses and planner of the massacres of almost seven months ago. «Netanyahu, Smotrich and the others will also be trying to derail the agreement. But now it depends on just one person.”
Blinken had a long conversation with the Gulf rulers, because the White House remains convinced that it can push normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel even before a permanent ceasefire.
Guarantees for the birth of a Palestinian state must be put on the table – and here the obstacle is Netanyahu with his coalition. While “many European countries – says the High Representative Josep Borrell – are preparing to recognize it by the end of May”.
The head of American diplomacy lands in Tel Aviv tomorrow: with the prime minister he must also address the plans for the post-war period, President Joe Biden and his advisors want control of the Strip to be returned to the Authority of President Abu Mazen, the fundamentalists they had taken it from him with weapons 17 years ago. And discuss possible sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda battalion for human rights violations in the West Bank: for now the measures are suspended, but the State Department is still evaluating whether to punish the unit made up mostly of settlers.
April 29, 2024
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