Netanyahu and the White House in a Q&A Session. Prime Minister to address Congress on June 13
By: Corriere della sera
Published on:
JERUSALEM – Sewage flood in Gaza tents has turned the battlefield into a displaced camp. Some had left the Palestinian town to return without a home, others fled from the north and then fled from here.
Israeli troops continue their operation in Rafah and that’s where they must leave now, even though the raid seems for now to be limited to some neighborhoods of the town and the border area with Egypt, where the army estimates Hamas has dug about a hundred tunnels, fifty of which have been identified and destroyed.
Despite the devastation, the leaders hiding in the tunnels seem to be taking time before giving a definitive response to the proposed ceasefire, which they still consider “positive”.
Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the massacres carried out by terrorists on October 7, is believed – as speculated by the American newspaper Wall Street Journal – to be convinced that they can continue, while leaders abroad are in favor of accepting the plan announced last Friday by Joe Biden.
The reply
A plan that John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Advisor at the White House, reiterates is “Israeli” when he angrily responds to Benjamin Netanyahu’s words who called the American president’s presentation “incomplete”: “It was an accurate description.
Now it’s up to Hamas, they must accept the agreement: good for the Palestinian population, good for Israeli security.”
Biden reaffirmed Israeli approval and the need to put pressure on the jihadists in a call with the Emir of Qatar. The Israeli Prime Minister – his speech to Congress, as revealed by Punchbowl News, will take place on June 13 – emphasizes that the “ceasefire will only be on our terms.”
He admits that a permanent ceasefire will be discussed after the first phase: six weeks during which about thirty hostages would be released, not just alive as Netanyahu initially demanded.
On the sixteenth day, mediators would try to achieve an end to the conflict which for Bibi, as he is nicknamed, cannot ignore “the destruction of Hamas”.
Extreme right-wing allies threaten to leave the government, but in the ruling coalition, the prime minister already finds support from an ultra-Orthodox party and Yair Lapid from the opposition reiterates that he is willing to ensure a majority to seal the deal and bring the hostages home: there are still 120 held in Gaza, 42 of whom are considered dead by the army’s intelligence.
A senior Israeli source explains to Nadav Eyal, columnist for the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, that “other circumstances may intervene, and we would still be forced to stop the conflict”. The Palestinians killed in 241 days are nearly 37,000, according to estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Khamenei and Abu Mazen
The possible “circumstances” are as dangerous as the flames in northern Israel: Lebanese Hezbollah has intensified attacks, May was the month with the most rocket and drone launches since last October. The military is preparing for the possibility of total conflict. Firefighters are struggling to contain the fires caused by explosions and evoking that “ring of fire” around Israel threatened by Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed by the Americans in 2020. “The Zionist regime is falling apart and is trapped in a dead end,” declares Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. Abu Mazen, the Palestinian president and rival of Hamas, responds harshly: “He wants to sacrifice the blood of our people, war is not what we need”.
