IGOR GIELOW
SÃO PAULO, SP – Israel postponed the meeting of its security cabinet in which it would ratify the ceasefire with Hamas this Thursday (16). The announcement comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu created the first crisis around the truce announced on Wednesday night (15).
He accused the Palestinians of not accepting all the terms of the deal, hours after saying he had done so. “The Israeli cabinet will not meet [para votar o arranjo] until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
The Palestinians deny it. Also in a statement, the head of the Gaza Strip group states that it is committed to all the terms agreed the day before in Qatar, in a negotiation mediated by the hosts, the United States and Egypt. According to the AFP agency, the Israeli cabinet will meet this Friday (17).
The atmosphere soured even more because Israel continued its attacks on Gaza this morning. Hamas said that at one of the points hit there was one of the Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023, who would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners starting next Sunday (19).
The group did not name her or say whether she was killed. In total, Palestinians counted 77 dead in Israeli bombings. October 7 left 1,200 people dead in one day in Israel, and the subsequent war killed 46,700 Gazans, according to Hamas.
On Wednesday, the terrorists had put one last condition on the table to approve the text, the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the so-called Philadelphia corridor, the 17 km border between Gaza and Egypt under which weapons were being trafficked for the terrorists. .
According to the agreement until then, such withdrawal would be gradual, over 50 days. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani then called first Palestinian negotiators and then Israeli ones.
At the end of the talks, the Israeli government released a statement saying that “due to the strong insistence of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Hamas abandoned its last-minute demand to change the positioning of the Israel Defense Forces in the corridor.” The text also said that other points were missing to finalize the agreement.
This occurred with the ceasefire already being celebrated on social media by US President-elect Donald Trump. About half an hour later, Al-Thani went public to officially announce the agreement. Netanyahu then spoke to the current White House leader, Joe Biden, and indicated that he was satisfied.
This morning, he changed his mind. His note does not mention the Philadelphia corridor, but it also does not mention another last-minute condition from Hamas, which in any case denies having done so.
Without evidence, everything suggests that Netanyahu is playing to the audience, more precisely his religious ultra-right base who are against the agreement because in it the 98 hostages still in the hands of Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack will be exchanged for around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
At least 30 of those detained in Israel are serving life sentences for killing Jews, and their release is seen as a risk to national security by the Orthodox.
In Israel’s security cabinet, which brings together 11 ministers, only 2 are exponents of this political faction. When the Jewish State signed a ceasefire with Hezbollah, in November, only one member of the collegiate voted against, the radical Itamar Ben-Gvir (National Security). The same Ben-Gvir promises to resign from the government if the agreement goes ahead.
But the prime minister’s contested government in Parliament needs a coalition with these ultra-right parties to survive, with his party holding just 32 of the 120 seats.
With one member in the security cabinet, Bezalel Smotrich (Finance), the Religious Zionism Party said this Thursday that it will leave the government if the war does not resume after the first phase of the ceasefire. If this happens, Netanyahu will lose seven deputies, maintaining a minimum majority of 61 votes.
On the other hand, the prime minister’s Likud is ahead in polls for next year’s election, after months behind its rivals.
The ceasefire is scheduled to begin on Sunday (19). As Israel goes into suspension due to Judaism’s weekly break on Friday night (17), time is now running for the crisis to be resolved.
The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, stated at a press conference this Thursday that the Biden government is confident that the agreement would be implemented from Sunday.
According to the agreement, the exchange of hostages for prisoners will be staggered, and must respect proportions between living October 7 captives, perhaps 60 of the 98, and Palestinians. The first phase should last 16 days, when 33 women, children, sick people and men over 50 will be exchanged for an uncertain number of Arabs.
Afterwards, the release of male Israeli soldiers and, finally, the bodies of victims of the Hamas attack will be negotiated. Subsequently, the administration of Gaza, which has been dominated by Hamas since 2007, will be structured, a complex and still uncertain process, which will largely depend on Trump’s will.
The initial ceasefire is expected to last 42 days and may be extended.
