US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel ramping up diplomatic pressure in a last-ditch effort to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release prisoners.
Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States are due to resume this week in Cairo, after a two-day meeting in Doha last week that focused on bridging gaps on proposals put forward by Washington.
But there are still significant gaps between Israel and Hamas, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources familiar with the talks and statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas.
Hamas wants to reach an agreement that will guarantee an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu, for his part, pledges “complete victory” and wants the agreement to allow him to resume fighting in the Palestinian enclave until Hamas is no longer able to pose any threat to Israelis.
Hamas wants Israel to withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, including the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5-kilometre strip along the coastal enclave’s southern border with Egypt.
For its part, Israel wants to maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which it seized in late May after destroying dozens of tunnels underneath it, which it says were used to smuggle weapons to armed groups in Gaza.
There appear to be divisions within the Israeli leadership on this issue as well. Netanyahu says that only the presence of Israeli troops on the border will prevent arms smuggling, while defense officials say the border can be monitored remotely and soldiers can carry out attacks if necessary.
Israel wants to carefully check displaced Palestinians as they return to the densely populated northern Gaza Strip when the ceasefire takes effect, to ensure they are unarmed. Hamas, meanwhile, is demanding freedom of movement for Palestinians who were forced to flee south and want to return home.
The three-stage ceasefire plan calls for the release of 33 prisoners, dead or alive, as humanitarian cases in the first stage. Netanyahu says he wants to increase the number of living prisoners to be released in this stage.
There are a total of 115 remaining prisoners, men and women, both civilians and soldiers, as well as two children, and the Israeli authorities have declared at least a third of them dead in absentia.
Israel also seeks to have the right to veto the identities of some Palestinian prisoners who might be released in exchange.
Source: Al Hadath
