Amid ongoing protests, Israel’s government wants to resume talks on the release of the remaining Hamas hostages. However, Egypt is threatening to withdraw from its mediating role in the Gaza war.
The Israeli War Cabinet has given the green light to continue negotiations on the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced this without providing further details.
For months, attempts have been made to reach an agreement on a new ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages through the mediating countries of Egypt, Qatar and the USA. The Netanyahu government is under increasing pressure.
Hostage video strengthens calls for negotiations
While the war cabinet met at the army headquarters in Tel Aviv, protests were again taking place outside, the Times of Israel reported. According to the newspaper, protests also took place in Jerusalem in front of Netanyahu’s office, with demonstrators demanding the immediate release of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip.
A previously published video had once again increased the calls for negotiations. The hostage families forum in Israel had published footage showing the kidnapping of five Israeli soldiers during the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on October 7.
The video shows the injured, partially bloodied women, who were deployed as army scouts in the border area with the Gaza Strip, with heavily armed terrorists. They are obviously frightened and have their arms tied behind their backs. The kidnappers repeatedly shout at them and threaten them.
The parents of the young women had agreed to the publication of the video in the hope that the horrific images could contribute to the release of their daughters and other hostages as a result of a deal between Israel and the Islamist Hamas.
Demonstrators, including relatives of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas, again demanded the release of the abductees in front of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem.
“Don’t waste another moment”
The hostage families forum called the video “a damning testimony to the nation’s failure to bring home the hostages who have been abandoned for 229 days.” The families of the abductees called on the Israeli government to “not waste a single moment more” and return to the negotiating table immediately.
Egypt threatens to withdraw as mediator
Meanwhile, Egypt threatened to withdraw from its role as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas. Continued attempts to cast doubt on Egyptian mediation efforts and its role with false claims will only further complicate the situation in the Gaza Strip and across the region, said Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s state information service, in a statement shared on social media.
This could “lead the Egyptian side to decide to withdraw completely from mediation in the conflict.” He was reacting to a CNN report that Egyptian intelligence had changed a ceasefire proposal accepted by Israel without consulting the other mediators.
According to CNN, Egypt’s secret service is said to have added further demands from Hamas to the proposal. When the Islamists agreed to an agreement on May 6, it did not correspond to the proposal that other mediators thought had been presented to Hamas for consideration, the broadcaster reported, citing three unnamed people familiar with the deliberations Persons. The incident caused enormous anger and led to a dead end in the talks. Egypt categorically rejected the US broadcaster’s representations.
USMinister of Defense calls for agreement
In a conversation with his counterpart Yoav Gallant about the situation at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings in the south of the Gaza Strip, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called on Israel to reach an agreement with Egypt. Austin called on his ally to bring the talks with Egypt about reopening the Rafah border crossing and the flow of aid from Egypt via Kerem Shalom to a conclusion, the Pentagon said.
Rafah is closed after the recent takeover of the Palestinian side by the Israeli army. Egypt has insisted that deliveries can only resume once the Palestinian side of the crossing is again under Palestinian control, wrote the Times of Israel. Egypt is also said to have stopped deliveries via Kerem Shalom.
Austin emphasized to Gallant the urgent need to increase humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip through all available border crossings, the Pentagon said.
White House: Israel’s offensive “more targeted and limited”
According to the US government, Israel’s advance in Rafah has not yet reached the extent that it warned its ally about. “Israeli military operations to date in this area have been more targeted and limited and have not included major military operations in the center of densely populated urban areas,” US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in Washington.
Sullivan said he learned of “refinements” in the plans for Rafah during a visit to Israel. These would allow the country to “achieve its military objectives and take into account the harm to the civilian population.”
Since the beginning of May, the Israeli army says it has been carrying out “targeted” ground operations and air strikes in Rafah, despite international warnings. It locates the last remaining Hamas battalions there.