There is great pressure on Israel’s government to extend the ceasefire with Hamas. But the longer this lasts, the more difficult it will be to continue the war afterwards. And Prime Minister Netanyahu is not backing down from the plan.
These are the hours that decide whether the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will be extended or whether the war will continue. And they decide whether more Israeli and foreign hostages will be released from their captivity of more than seven weeks.
Negotiations are feverish behind the scenes. In Doha, Qatar, CIA Director William Burns, the head of the Israeli foreign intelligence agency Mossad, David Barnea, and Qatar’s Prime Minister Abdulrahman Al Thani met to extend the ceasefire once again.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is expected in Israel tomorrow, commented on this in Brussels. “We would like to extend the ceasefire,” he said, and that they had already achieved a lot: “We have freed hostages. They have come home, been reunited with their families. And we have made it possible for the people in Gaza to receive relief supplies to come. We want all of that.” He thinks that Israel wants this too.
Resuming the war will be more difficult
It is a dilemma for Israel’s government. Large parts of society want to free more hostages, whatever the cost. All of Israel participates in the release of its citizens.
But a longer ceasefire also means that the war machine will start to sputter. And the longer there is no fighting in the Gaza Strip, the more difficult it will be to restart the war, given public opinion and the suffering of the civilian population there.
Hamas makes offers
Hamas knows this too. And she makes offers. From his exile in Lebanon, Ghazi Hamad, one of the terrorist group’s leading spokesmen, proposes an exchange of all hostages for all Palestinian prisoners in Israel. On condition, Hamad says, Hamas is willing to “conclude a comprehensive and complete agreement under the auspices of the mediators.”
That would mean a permanent ceasefire. But that would be difficult for Israel to bear. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone too far out of his way and confirmed the destruction of Hamas. Also in his video message today on Platform X, formerly Twitter.
Netanyahu under pressure
But he is under pressure. “This week I keep hearing the question of whether Israel will resume the war after the return of our hostages is over. My answer to that is: definitely yes. We will return to the war until the end,” Netanyahu said, adding: “That’s my policy. The cabinet is united behind it, the soldiers are behind it, the people are behind it. And that’s exactly what we will do.”
“After the completion of the phase of the return of our hostages” – this sentence leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The Prime Minister is not ruling out that more hostages will be released, possibly all of them, and that the ceasefire will be extended as a prerequisite – even if he is committed to one thing: the war will continue afterwards.
Julio Segador, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, November 29, 2023 5:42 p.m