US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been to Egypt in an effort to garner support in the area for a draft peace agreement on Gaza that President Joe Biden just revealed.
Since the beginning of the Gaza War, the senior US official has made eight trips to the region. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and Mr. Blinken will first have discussions on Monday after his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. For months, mediators in the region—among which Qatar is one—have been trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu has pledged to oppose any such agreement unless all hostages are freed and Hamas's military and political capacity is eliminated.
Following fierce gunfights between Israel's soldiers and Hamas inside and outside the Nuseirat refugee camp, four additional prisoners were released on Saturday with the support of airstrikes.
274 individuals, including civilians and children, were killed in the attack, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is governed by Hamas. Israel claims that the operation resulted in less than 100 deaths. Following the assault, the political head of Hamas said that his organization would not accept a ceasefire agreement unless Palestinian security was ensured.
During his visit, Mr. Blinken intends to persuade Arab countries to exert pressure on Hamas to agree to the cease-fire in exchange for the release of the hostages that the US is sorely seeking. The three-phase plan that Mr. Biden unveiled ten days ago called for the reconstruction of Gaza with help from outside and a six-week truce that would eventually become permanent. To successfully bounce the two parties into movement, the president referred to it as Israel's plan.
The draft is "nearly identical," according to Mr. Biden's aides, to one that Hamas approved last month. "Hamas is the sole obstacle to the implementation of this ceasefire. They should now accept the arrangement, Mr. Blinken said on Saturday. It is probable that Hamas would need assurances that the proposal will result in an enduring truce and an entire Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip. It is unclear if indirect conversations can continue since, according to US and Israeli sources, its political leadership in Doha has not yet publicly responded to the idea.
In its operations in southern Israel on October 7, Hamas murdered over 1,200 people and kidnapped approximately 251 more. There are still around 116 people in Palestinian land, 41 of whom the army claims are dead. In accordance with an agreement reached in November, Hamas released 240 Palestinian inmates from Israeli prisons and 105 hostages in exchange for a week-long truce. According to the health ministry administered by Hamas, the number of fatalities in Gaza has topped 37,000.
Even if Mr. Biden portrayed the peace proposal as Israeli, the US is aware that the idea is being met with significant resistance by Israel's own divided government coalition.
This includes those far-right ministers who have publicly opposed the agreement, vowing to bring down the government if it goes through.
With no indication that progress on the cease-fire agreement would be made, America's top diplomat is therefore taking off into the center of a political tempest in Israel. The instability surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu, who the White House has been more irritated with during the conflict, has intensified with retired general Benny Gantz's departure from the war cabinet on Sunday. Mr. Gantz had grown to be a go-to person for Washington leaders. After giving Mr. Netanyahu until June 8 to comply with his requests, he resigned. His criticisms of Mr. Netanyahu's management of the conflict, which included the absence of any substantial strategy for Gaza's government after Hamas, were similar to those of the Biden administration in many cases.
On Sunday, Mr. Gantz said that the prime minister was preventing Israel "from achieving real victory" by prioritizing his political life above the interests of the country. In response, Mr. Netanyahu said that colleagues should "join forces" rather than step down at this moment. The Israeli government's center of gravity has shifted back to the extreme right with Mr. Gantz's departure, but it is unclear how this will impact the pressure Washington can apply to Mr. Netanyahu given that its major objective is still to garner support for the cease-fire deal.
Mr. Blinken is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo, where he is expected to face pressure to advance the Rafah border crossing problem.
The entrance from Egypt serves as both a lifeline for medical supplies reaching Gaza and the only international way out for injured Palestinians, some of whom have managed to flee during the conflict to get medical care in Egypt. Additionally, it has served as the main thoroughfare for foreign relief workers entering and leaving Gaza.
Since Israel took control of the border from Hamas fighters last month—a move that infuriated the Egyptian leadership—the Rafah gate has remained closed. Israel has so far refused Egypt's demand that personnel from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority take command of the Rafah border. The likelihood of a crisis between Egypt and Israel, who made peace fifty years ago and whose long-standing treaty commitments are crucial in attempting to preserve regional security, increases the longer the dispute goes unresolved.
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