JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pressure for months from political allies and the families of hostages and soldiers to end the Gaza war, but analysts say he now hopes the ceasefire will help him stay in power.
The ceasefire and hostage release deal announced by mediators Qatar and the United States on Wednesday represents a pivotal moment for the Israeli leader.
Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Netanyahu has faced sharp public criticism for not securing the release of hostages sooner.
Parents of soldiers fighting in Gaza have accused Netanyahu of derailing months-long efforts to end the fighting for political gain, as he battles corruption charges in a lengthy trial.
Some 800 parents of soldiers earlier this month sent him a letter saying they could no longer “allow you to continue sacrificing our children as cannon fodder.”
More than 400 troops have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war.
But far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have threatened to quit his administration over any ceasefire deal and pushed for an even harder response in Gaza.
Despite the conflicting pressures, analysts say that the obstacles clouding his mandate in recent months are unlikely to bring down the leader long seen as a political survivor.
After the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages.
During their assault, militants took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
While Hamas has not been defeated, Israel has decimated its leadership and its military structure.
It has also massively weakened its Lebanese foe Hezbollah in a parallel war to the north that took out the Iran-backed group’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and a string of other commanders.
Netanyahu could now seek a way to use the ceasefire agreement to his advantage, potentially by pivoting away from the far-right coalition partners he has relied on since 2022.
The deal could even pave the way to a long-sought normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, backed by incoming US president Donald Trump.
“The key is not the situation but how you play the game, and the bottom line is that (Netanyahu) is the best player of the game there is,” said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the political studies department at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv.
Before the Hamas attack, Israeli ally the United States was close to clinching a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“The question is what is Netanyahu getting out of the deal beyond the hostage release and the ceasefire and that is where we get into the Saudi question,” said Anshel Pfeffer, a journalist and author of a 2018 biography of Netanyahu.
He said it was possible that the agreement “could be part of something much bigger... Trump wants a deal” between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
While Netanyahu’s far-right partners have vowed to oppose the ceasefire, Pfeffer said it was unlikely any disagreements in the ruling coalition would bring him down.
Still, the ceasefire will be “a moment of truth” for Netanyahu, where he might try to “pivot away from the far right in the coalition to some sort of legacy-defining deal with the Saudis.”
After all but crushing his enemies in Hamas and Lebanon, Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Netanyahu may no longer need to rely on the far right.
Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and Itamar Ben Gvir, the security minister, are both far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet and have expressed their opposition to the deal.
“It may well be that both Smotrich and Ben Gvir will not be part of such a deal, which means that behind heavy curtains, it may be the case that Netanyahu is preparing for that day,” Talshir said.
She noted that former defense minister Benny Gantz, opposition leader Yair Lapid and other figures have already indicated they would work with Netanyahu if he reaches an agreement to free the hostages or if he strikes a deal with Saudi Arabia.
Aviv Bushinsky, a political commentator and Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, said that despite some turbulence sparked by the ceasefire, “politically, it’s not a game changer.”
Nonetheless, the October 7 attack would continue to cast a shadow over Netanyahu, he said.
The prime minister “will want people to remember the ones he has managed to bring back but not the ones he was unable to bring back,” Bushinsky said.
“But this thing will continue to haunt him... It will be the first time since Israel was established” that its military was unable to rescue missing civilians, he added.
Netanyahu bets on political survival with Gaza ceasefire
https://arab.news/zp4jr
Netanyahu bets on political survival with Gaza ceasefire
- Parents of soldiers fighting in Gaza have accused Netanyahu of derailing months-long efforts to end the fighting for political gain
- Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have threatened to quit his administration over any ceasefire deal
Netanyahu says ‘last minute crisis’ with Hamas holding up approval of Gaza truce and hostage deal
- Netanyahu accuses Hamas of reneging on parts of ceasefire deal to gain concessions
- Hamas official says group “committed to ceasefire agreement” announced by mediators
TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a “last minute crisis” with Hamas was holding up Israeli approval of a long-awaited agreement to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages. Israeli airstrikes meanwhile killed dozens of people across the war-ravaged territory.
Netanyahu’s office said his Cabinet won’t meet to approve the agreement until Hamas backs down, accusing it of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions.
Izzat Al-Rashq, a senior Hamas official, said the militant group “is committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators.”
US President Joe Biden and key mediator Qatar announced the deal on Wednesday, which is aimed at releasing scores of hostages held in Gaza and winding down a 15-month war that has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.
Netanyahu’s office had earlier accused Hamas of backtracking on an earlier understanding that he said would give Israel a veto over which prisoners convicted of murder would be released in exchange for hostages.
Netanyahu has faced great domestic pressure to bring home the scores of hostages, but his far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government if he makes too many concessions.
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have meanwhile killed at least 48 people over the past day, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. In previous conflicts, both sides have stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires as a way to project strength.
Around half of the dead were women and children, Zaher Al-Wahedi, head of the ministry’s registration department, told The Associated Press. He said the toll could rise as hospitals update their records.
A phased withdrawal and hostage release with potential pitfalls
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, and the Israeli military believes around a third and up to half of them are dead.
Under the deal reached Wednesday, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israeli forces will pull back from many areas, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be able to return to what’s left of their homes, and there would be a surge of humanitarian assistance.
The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second — and much more difficult — phase that will be negotiated during the first. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 46,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry. it does not say how many of the dead were militants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced some 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, according to the United Nations.
Israel says final details still being worked out
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US are expected to meet in Cairo on Thursday for talks on implementing the agreement. They have spent the past year holding indirect talks with Israel and Hamas that finally resulted in a deal after repeated setbacks.
President-elect Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy joined the talks in the final weeks, and both the outgoing administration and Trump’s team are taking credit for the breakthrough.
Many longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction after a brutal conflict that has destabilized the broader Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.
Israel has come under heavy international criticism, including from its closest ally, the United States, over the civilian toll in Gaza. It also blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, accusing it of using schools, hospitals and residential areas for military purposes.
The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations brought by South Africa that Israel has committed genocide. The International Criminal Court, a separate body also based in The Hague, has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and a Hamas commander for war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the war.
Israel and the United States have condemned the actions taken by both courts.
Hamas, a militant group that does not accept Israel’s existence, has come under overwhelming pressure from Israeli military operations, including the invasion of Gaza’s largest cities and towns and the takeover of the border between Gaza and Egypt. Its top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, who was believed to have helped mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, have been killed.
But its fighters have regrouped in some of the hardest-hit areas after the withdrawal of Israeli forces, raising the prospect of a prolonged insurgency if the war continues.
Yemen’s Houthis to continue attacks if Gaza ceasefire breached
- The Houthis' attacks since Nov. 2023 forced some ships to take the long route around southern Africa rather than the Suez Canal
- The armed group has also launched missiles and drones toward Israel
CAIRO: The leader of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, said on Thursday his group will monitor the implementation of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza and continue its attacks if it is breached.
The Houthis, who had on an almost weekly basis targeted ships using ballistic missiles and drones in waters near Yemen’s shores to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, had long said they would cease these operations if the conflict ended.
The attacks, which started in Nov. 2023, have disrupted international commerce, forcing some ships to take the long route around southern Africa rather than the Suez Canal, leading to an increase in insurance rates, delivery costs and time that stoked fears of a new bout of global inflation.
The Houthis, who control most parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa since seizing power in late 2014, have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
The armed group has also launched missiles and drones toward Israel, hundreds of kilometers to the north. Israel responded by striking Houthi areas on several occasions, including last week when Israeli warplanes bombed two ports and a power station.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis.
The United States alongside Britain launched in Dec. 2023 a multinational operation to safeguard commerce in the Red Sea and have repeatedly conducted air strikes on Houthi strongholds targeting weapons storage facilities.
The EU later in February launched its own Red Sea mission, known as Aspides, to help deter intensified Houthi attacks and help protect the key maritime trade route.
The Houthis appear to be the latest standing component of Iran’s anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias, known as the Axis of Resistance, which also includes Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Shiite armed groups in Iraq.
Israel has dealt serious blows to Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, killing their top leaders and reducing their arsenals. In the aftermath, the decades-long regime of Bashar Assad in Syria was also toppled.
Satellite photos show the Gaza Strip before and after the devastation of the Israel-Hamas war
- Some of the images have illustrated a likely buffer zone, wanted by Israel despite international objections
- Other images tell the story of how Palestinians’ lives have changed during the war
DUBAI: The Israel-Hamas war, now nearing a potential ceasefire, has devastated the Gaza Strip. Satellite photos offer some sense of the destruction in the territory, which has been largely sealed off to journalists and others.
Some of the images have illustrated a likely buffer zone, wanted by Israel despite international objections, which would take some 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) out of the enclave. In all, the strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea is about 360 square kilometers (139 square miles), and Palestinians hope it will be part of a future state, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Other images tell the story of how Palestinians’ lives have changed during the war. Gaza City, the dense major city in the strip, has been decimated, with buildings destroyed and roads filled with rubble.
As the war progressed, Israel ordered people to move farther south. Today, the result of that movement can be seen in images of Muwasi, just north of the strip’s southern border with Egypt. There, the sandy coast and surrounding farmland have been overtaken by thousands of tents, all visible from space.
The images have also helped relief agencies and experts make estimates regarding the extent of the damage.
Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University have been studying Gaza since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas entered Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Their latest assessment, published Thursday, estimates 59.8 percent of all buildings in Gaza likely have been damaged in the war.
That’s slightly lower than a December analysis from the United Nations Satellite Center. It estimated 69 percent of all structures in Gaza have been damaged in the fighting, which has killed over 46,000 people, according to local health authorities. They do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed.
Blinken says feels ‘real regret’ at failure to end Sudan war
- “It is for me, yes, another real regret that when it comes to Sudan,” Blinken said
- There have been “some improvements in getting humanitarian assistance in through our diplomacy”
WASHINGTON: Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday he regretted his inability to end the brutal war in Sudan and voiced hope that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will keep trying.
“It is for me, yes, another real regret that when it comes to Sudan, we haven’t been able on our watch to get to that day of success,” Blinken said at a farewell news conference.
There have been “some improvements in getting humanitarian assistance in through our diplomacy, but not an end to the conflict, not an end to the abuses, not an end to the suffering of people,” he said.
“We’ll keep working at it for the next three days, and I hope the next administration will take that on as well,” he said.
Blinken last week determined that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with Sudan’s army since April 2023, had committed genocide.
Blinken said that the army “has also committed war crimes, and it continues to target civilians” and regretted its refusal to engage in a series of ceasefire talks.
WHO calls for international support to fund aid in Gaza after ceasefire deal
- “The UN cannot deliver the response alone,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory
- Part of the ceasefire deal requires 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza
GAZA: The World Health Organization called for the international community to step up and fund a scaled-up aid response in Gaza after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal to end 15 months of war in the region earlier this week.
The UN health agency said its member states, donors and the global community, including the private sector, should support both the urgent health needs and the longer-term rebuilding of Gaza’s health care system.
“The UN cannot deliver the response alone,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Part of the ceasefire deal requires 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza every day. Peeperkorn said WHO was ready to deliver, although the “significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid across Gaza” need to be removed.
“Now is the time for member states, donors and the global community to step up and provide flexible funding to enable this swift and effective response for urgent and longer term needs,” he said.
