Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip has provided opportunities to sign new peace agreements with Arab countries and the possibility of significant changes in the Middle East. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
“Moderate Arab countries see Israel as a regional power and a potential ally. I intend to take full advantage of this opportunity. Together with our American friends, I plan to expand the Abrahamic agreements… And they will change the face of the Middle East even more dramatically,” Netanyahu said in parliament.
AFP explains that the prime minister was referring to the 2020 agreements that normalized Israel’s relations with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The agreements were brokered by the United States during the first term of US President Donald Trump.
Progress in negotiations
At the same time, Netanyahu told MPs that “some progress” had been made in the negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli prime minister’s comments came just two days after the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the left-wing Palestinian organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a joint statement that a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip was “closer than ever”.
In recent days, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, took place in Doha, Qatar, with the aim of ending the more than 14-month-long war in this Palestinian enclave, reports AFP.
Netanyahu: We will not stop acting
“We can’t publish everything we do. We are taking steps to bring them (the hostages) back. I want to be careful to say that we have made some progress and we will not stop until we bring them all back,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas militants took 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war. About 96 of them remain detained in the Gaza Strip, with 34 dead, according to the Israeli military.
In his address to MPs, Netanyahu also warned Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels, who fired two rockets at Israel last week. Saturday’s attack on Tel Aviv left 16 injured.
“I have ordered our forces to destroy the Houthi infrastructure because anyone who tries to harm us will be hit with full force,” the Israeli prime minister said. Israel responded to the Houthi attacks with airstrikes on ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen. nine people died.
