Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains defiant, although appearing increasingly isolated from his own people. “Weakness will not bring back the hostages,” he insisted as tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets and unions held a general strike to demand his government agree a temporary ceasefire deal on the 97 remaining Gaza hostages.
The outpouring of public anger since the bodies of six slain hostages were recovered from a Rafah tunnel over the weekend is a measure of the deep fissures in Israeli society over the conduct of the war. The hostages had been killed, Israel alleges, just before rescue, but many of his fellow citizens blame Netanyahu for squandering the lost opportunity of a ceasefire agreement.
At issue still in the internationally-brokered talks is the insistence by Israel on retaining control of the Gazan side of the border with Egypt, the “Philadelphi Corridor”, which it maintains is “the lifeline of Hamas”. It is a demand that Netanyahu, backed by his extremist cabinet, has added late to a complex deal that US President Joe Biden proposed and that Israel and Hamas appeared ready to accept.
Israel’s security chiefs have defended leaving the Philadelphi Corridor as a bearable step if it secured the release of hostages. Netanyahu’s cabinet remains adamant, however, that even a temporary ceasefire is only acceptable if Hamas’s capacity to operate is decisively destroyed, although many argue that this is an impossible aim. “We are crushing Hamas,” Netanyahu says. “But we still need to take away its ability to rule” in Gaza.
A temporary ceasefire involving an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would only be a prelude, however, to long-term peace talks at which issues like the status of the territory and its future governance would be addressed, with Israel reserving to itself, whether allies in the international community like it or not, the right to return to the territory and to resume its military onslaught. An immediate ceasefire is the only way to end the bloodshed even temporarily and the only way to free the hostages.