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Over the weekend, between Friday and Saturday, delegates from various countries including Israel, the United States and Egypt tried to find an agreement to reach an at least temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and to obtain the liberation of part of the Israeli hostages still held captive by Hamas.
For the first time in months there is a certain optimism around the negotiations, and there is open talk of the possibility of reaching an agreement that guarantees a pause in the fighting by the start of Ramadan on March 10. The big difference compared to the past lies above all in the attitude of the Israeli delegation: previously it had received the order to «listen and sit», that is, not to actively participate in the discussions, while this time she was committed to finding an agreement, a sign that the government could also be ready to negotiate.
At the moment, however, there is no certainty that an agreement will be reached and how use the center-left Israeli newspaper Haaretzmuch depends on a single person: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who could decide to continue the negotiations or, as has already happened in recent months, to sabotage them.
The bulk of the negotiations took place on Friday in Paris in a secret location, during a meeting attended among others by the head of the Mossad (Israel’s external intelligence services), the director of the CIA, the head of Egyptian and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al Thani. There were no representatives of Hamas present at the meeting, but both Egypt and Qatar have direct relations with the group’s leadership and act as intermediaries in these cases.
The Paris negotiations ended on Saturday but the Israeli delegation, after a brief stop in Israel, she left for Qatara sign that the dialogue is continuing.
A demonstration asking the Israeli government for an agreement for the release of the hostages, on February 24 in Tel Aviv (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
So far all attempts at negotiation have failed mainly for two reasons.
On the one hand due to some requests from Hamas, which Israel sees as excessive: it calls for a total withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip as a prerogative for a ceasefire, and the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage. There are currently around 130 Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, but Israeli authorities believe around 30 are dead.
On the other hand, the intransigence of Netanyahu’s government, which on more than one occasion has effectively ignored the negotiations (sending delegations without sufficient authority or mandate) or has directly sabotaged them, withdrawing the Israeli delegations without attempting to negotiate further.
Now both positions appear to have moderated. The media are still quite uncertain about Hamas’ positions, but for example Daniele Raineri on Republic he wrote that Hamas would be willing to accept the release of fewer Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages and that it would give up calling for Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Strip, but only from some cities.
Israel is ready to accept a six-week pause in fighting, which the United States would then like to turn into a permanent ceasefire. According to the agreement negotiated in Paris, Hamas would release around 40 hostages in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners.
There are obviously still huge uncertainties. The negotiations are very far from being concluded and any draft agreement must be submitted to the Hamas leadership which is isolated and hidden inside the Gaza Strip, which makes all communications complicated.
But according to various media, a lot depends on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has so far demonstrated little political will to find an agreement and who on more than one occasion – most recently on Friday – has refused any type of negotiation that would limit the extension of military operations Israelis in Gaza.
Last month, during the last such meeting in Paris, Netanyahu effectively sabotaged the talks by calling Hamas’ demands unacceptable and making it impossible to continue negotiations. Hamas’ demands were indeed excessive for Israel, but the breakdown in negotiations made it impossible to find new compromises. Second Haaretzif Netanyahu manages to “maintain relative silence” then the agreement will have some hope.