With a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement hanging in the balance, Israeli security and intelligence officials have accused prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu of jeopardising a deal by presenting red lines on a number of unresolved issues.
Mossad chief David Barnea warned against protracted talks over the return of displaced residents of northern Gaza, telling the security cabinet that female Israeli hostages, due to be released in the first stage of a three-phase deal, do not have the time for changes to be made to the plan.
Defence minister Yoav Gallant is also pushing for the agreement to be finalised, saying the military can deal afterwards with any problems that emerge. He warned that Israel has a two-week window, otherwise the abductees’ fate will have been “sealed”. He said pursuing a hostage deal alongside the military operation in Gaza to destroy Hamas’ capabilities is the “worthy, right and necessary” thing to do.
Mr Netanyahu travels to Washington next week, where he will address a joint session of Congress and meet President Joe Biden. The families of the hostages urged him not to travel before a ceasefire deal has been finalised.
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Mr Netanyahu is also under intense pressure from the two far-right parties in his coalition, who have threatened to leave the government if Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza or Palestinian security prisoners are released as part of a ceasefire agreement.
However, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party has come out in support of a deal, saying painful concessions can be made to save the lives of hostages. “It is permissible to release all these damned terrorists,” ruled the former Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.
Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps in the centre of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north on Thursday, killing at least 21 people, and tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, health officials and residents said.
[ Israel bombards refugee camps in central Gaza as tanks advance in Rafah cityOpens in new window ]
The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked and killed about 20 Hamas militants from the Hamas Gaza City Shati battalion on Thursday. An IDF spokesperson claimed they included gunmen who participated in the October 7th attack on Israel.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 38,700 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on that day. Some 116 hostages remain in Gaza and Israel has confirmed the death of 42 of them.
With the humanitarian crisis continuing, the USAID organisation stressed the need for all Gaza crossings to be open and operating at maximum capacity.
“The needs in Gaza remain staggering – with nearly the entire population in need of food assistance and with the vast majority lacking access to clean water for months,” the group said in a statement. “We urgently need a ceasefire to be able to surge assistance and have the hostages released.”
Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in a visit to the flashpoint of Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, which is revered by Muslims as the Harm el-Sharif Noble Sanctuary, said: “I came here to pray for the hostages and for their return, but without a reckless deal, without surrender.”
The Jordanian foreign ministry condemned the visit, the second by Mr Ben-Gvir since the start of the Gaza war, calling it a “provocative step that reflects the extreme Israeli government”.
Israel’s Knesset parliament voted on Thursday to affirm its opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The declarative proposal was supported by 68 right-wing and centrist members of the 120-member chamber.
As cross-border fire continued between Israel and Hizbullah in south Lebanon, Mr Gallant warned that the conflict with the Iranian-backed militia is approaching a decisive moment, adding that the IDF can “shift from a major effort in the south to a major effort in the north in an instant.” Additional reporting: Reuters
