Delegations from Israel and the United States are in Egypt to try to promote a ceasefire in Gaza. international

The arrival in Cairo this Tuesday of top officials of the secret services of Israel and the United States has raised some hopes about the possibility of a new ceasefire in war-ravaged Gaza. The working basis is the same one that United States President Joe Biden announced on Monday, saying attacks could be halted for at least six weeks, something that would open the door to a new hostage swap for Palestinian prisoners . The pressure from Israel’s main ally has been stronger than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s categorical refusal last week to accept the Islamists’ demands. In Israel, the success with which elite uniformed personnel from Rafah in the south of the Strip managed to free two kidnapped men in an operation described as historic. But, at the same time, officials know this will not be a way to return home for the 134 people who are still there.

In recent days, it is “certain” that amid “constructive meetings”, there has been “advancement” in the positions of both sides, Israel and Hamas, which leads to a certain “optimism” according to a foreign source. Israeli newspaper cited anonymity Haaretz, For several days, the Egyptian capital has been the place where teams from this country and Qatar have been trying to pave the way for a cessation of hostilities by negotiating with the Hamas delegation. Now Mossad (Israel’s Foreign Espionage Service) chief David Barnia and CIA (United States Central Intelligence Agency) chief William Burns have also joined it.

Relatives of the hostages pleaded with Israeli negotiators sent to Egypt, “not to return until all the people, living and dead, return home.” According to a statement made public by him. They also mention those who have already lost their lives, 31 according to officials out of 134. “134 hostages have their eyes on you. This is a once-in-a-lifetime mission and you have the ability to rescue 134 captives and prevent their fate from being the same as Ron Arad,” he adds, referring to an Israeli soldier who has been missing for almost four years. decade.

The month and a half that Biden mentioned after meeting with Jordan’s King, Abdullah II, would mean six times longer than the first ceasefire achieved in the war, which was a week at the end of November. , Neither the negotiators nor the parties involved in the conflict have disclosed the details around which the negotiations will revolve, such as how many Palestinian prisoners will be released for each hostage or what will be the profile of the prisoners who are released from Israeli prisons. Will go. In any case, the United States believes that if those six weeks were achieved, they would serve as a springboard to achieve more ambitious objectives, leading to a possible end to the conflict. In which approximately 28,500 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7. ,

According to some local media, in the last few hours, the enthusiasm with which Israel announced that it was going to enter Rafah with its troops, with blood and fire, is also waning. The presence of more than a million displaced people with no place to go and the lack of an agreement with Egypt, which borders that city in southern Gaza, complicates these plans. Furthermore, the United Nations has also come forward today to ensure that it does not plan to participate in any operations of forced movement of populations, as Israel wants to be able to carry out its own operations against those battalions. Hamas owns the area, which they claim.

“We have not received any official communication from the Israeli authorities,” Jens Larcke, spokesman for the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement to the Reuters agency. “In any case, the United Nations does not participate in forced and non-voluntary evacuations. “There are no plans at this time to facilitate the evacuation of civilians,” he said.

The United States has insisted that a ground invasion of Rafah cannot be conducted without a viable evacuation plan for hundreds of thousands of civilians. So far no one has given details from the Israeli side as to how they can go from words to actions in this regard. More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million live in and around Rafah. The vast majority do not have shelter, food, water or the most basic things to survive.

Although Israel has not launched its ground offensive in the southernmost tip of Gaza, its troops continue to attack Rafah on a daily basis. An editor and a cameraman of the Qatari network Al Jazeera were seriously injured in a drone strike this Tuesday, which marked the fifth time that Israel has taken this type of action against its journalists during the current conflict. They have already killed a cameraman in December.

Centrist Minister Benny Gantz explains what the government plans, hoping to continue negotiations with the military steamroller and release the hostages at the same time. “We will negotiate with our friends around the world” and “We will take measures that will give us freedom of action: evacuating the population, securing the borders and carrying out the necessary preparatory work for a ground invasion, and we will act,” Gantz. Said. According to the Israeli newspaper Maariv,

The categorical refusal last week by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to the demands of Palestinian Islamists did not mean that, faced with the need to bring hostages home, he was unwilling to continue negotiations. The approval of the visit of the Barnia-led delegation is being seen as a step towards a possible ceasefire. The guns have been silent for only a week since the war began on 7 October. This was during late November. Then, in various exchanges, 105 hostages were able to leave Gaza and 240 Palestinian prisoners, women and minors were released from Israeli prisons. There are still 134 kidnapped people in the Strip, of whom, according to Israel, 31 have already died.

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