A day after Israel confirmed that Hamas had killed six hostages in Gaza, the Israeli spy chief flew to Doha to carry talks on the floundering US-led diplomatic push to safe the discharge of the remaining captives and finish the warfare within the strip.
The discussions on Monday between Mossad chief David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, one of many important mediators, targeted on the primary hurdle to an settlement: Israel’s insistence that it retain troops on a strip of land alongside Gaza’s border with Egypt often known as the Philadelphi hall. And Barnea provided a glimmer of hope.
He caught to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s place that Israel wouldn’t withdraw troops from the hall through the first part of the three-stage, US-backed deal that has been mentioned for months by mediators. However he added that if an settlement survived an preliminary six-week truce, Israel would “be prepared to withdraw troops from there”, mentioned a diplomat briefed on the talks.
This was thought of a optimistic signal, and “one thing mediators might work with”, the diplomat mentioned.
The assembly between Barnea, Israel’s important negotiator, and the Qataris happened as a basic strike in Israel raised public stress on Netanyahu to agree a deal after the killings of the six hostages. The strike adopted mass protests on Sunday evening — the biggest demonstrations since Hamas’s October 7 assault triggered the warfare — as a whole lot of hundreds of Israelis took to the streets to specific their frustration with the prime minister and his far-right authorities.
But any hopes of a breakthrough have been quickly dashed — as they’ve been repeatedly over the previous months. In a while Monday, Netanyahu held a prolonged press convention by which he vowed to not “give up” by agreeing to a deal, dismissed the calls for of the protesters and doubled down on the necessity to hold troops on the Philadelphi hall — seemingly endlessly.
Utilizing maps as props, Netanyahu described the strip of land, which Israel says Hamas makes use of to smuggle weapons by way of the border, as being of “cardinal significance each in bringing [home] the hostages and guaranteeing that Hamas will probably be crushed”.
“It is for that reason that Hamas is insisting that we not be there, and it is for that reason that I insist that we are going to be there,” he added.
His defiance within the face of mounting home and worldwide stress for a deal — and hours after Barnea had held talks in Doha — underscored the intractable challenges mediators face in getting Israel and Hamas to achieve an settlement.
The diplomat briefed on the talks mentioned there was no new spherical of negotiations scheduled — whilst US officers have warned that the latest talks may very well be the final probability to get a deal inked.
Neither Hamas, nor Egypt, one of many different important mediators, is prepared to simply accept a deal that leaves Israeli troops within the 14km border hall.
After Netanyahu’s press convention, by which he implied that Egypt had turned a blind eye to Hamas’s arms smuggling, Cairo put out an normally stern condemnation of his feedback, accusing him of “referring to Egypt, to distract Israeli public opinion, impede reaching a ceasefire and an trade of hostages and prisoners”.
“Egypt holds accountable the Israeli authorities for the results of those statements which deepen the disaster and goal to justify incitement and hostile insurance policies,” the Egyptian authorities mentioned.
Qatar put out a press release expressing “solidarity” with Egypt, saying the “Israeli occupation’s strategy based mostly on an try and falsify details and mislead world public opinion by repeating lies will in the end result in the demise of peace efforts and the enlargement of violence within the area”.
An individual acquainted with the Egyptian authorities deliberations mentioned weeks of talks between Cairo and Washington, with enter from Israeli safety officers, had been discussing a “monitoring mechanism” for the Egypt-Gaza frontier to persuade Netanyahu that the border may very well be secured with out the presence of Israeli forces.
That would embody an underground high-tech barrier to be constructed on the Egyptian facet of the hall, much like the multibillion-dollar fortification Israel constructed a number of years in the past round Gaza in a bid to interdict tunnels. Extra sensors to trace tunnel development would even be deployed, in addition to elite Egyptian troops tasked with halting above-ground smuggling, the individual mentioned.
The US would doubtless must fund the scheme, the individual mentioned, including that Cairo has intimated that “the one assure in opposition to weapons smuggling is Egyptian and Israeli co-operation”.
Nonetheless, the diplomat mentioned the small print of how the monitoring mechanism would work have been nonetheless not clear. And it might solely succeed if Netanyahu agreed to withdraw Israeli troops.
Netanyahu mentioned on Wednesday that Israel couldn’t comply with a everlasting ceasefire if the Philadelphi hall was “perforated”.
“Any person needs to be there. I don’t care, deliver me anybody who will really present us, not on paper, not in phrases, not in a slide, however on the bottom, day after day, week after week, month after month, that they will really forestall the recurrence of what occurred there earlier than,” he advised reporters. “We’re open to think about it. However I don’t see that occuring.”
Even earlier than his Monday evening speech, the US, which has largely put the onus on Hamas to agree a deal, expressed its frustration with the Israeli prime minister’s intransigence. When requested if Netanyahu was doing sufficient to allow a deal, President Joe Biden gave a blunt “no”.
Mediators have been utilizing the define of a three-phase deal Biden endorsed on Could 31, which requires the discharge of hostages in trade for Palestinian prisoners, the redeployment of Israeli troops from Gaza’s populated areas within the first part, and their full withdrawal from the strip within the second stage.
The US introduced what it referred to as a “bridging proposal” to Israel final month, the small print of which haven’t been made public. Hamas insists an earlier model of the plan endorsed by Biden be applied, whereas Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining troops within the Philadelphi hall has deadlocked the method.
“Mediators are working arduous on looking for an answer, however they’re in a tricky place, as a result of in the event you permit Israel to remain within the Philadelphi hall, Egypt and Hamas received’t comply with it,” the diplomat mentioned. “Should you push Israel to depart, Netanyahu won’t ever comply with it.”
Israeli opposition leaders and, in personal, safety officers accuse Netanyahu of wilfully undermining any attainable deal, particularly at key moments the place progress was evident, in a bid to make sure his political survival.
Far-right ministers who’re key to Netanyahu’s ruling coalition have threatened to topple the federal government if he agrees to what they describe as a “reckless” deal.
On Tuesday, opposition politician Benny Gantz, who was a part of the warfare cupboard earlier than he resigned in June, mentioned the federal government wanted to prioritise the hostages’ launch even at the price of withdrawing from Philadelphi.
“The hostages have to be returned, even at a heavy worth,” mentioned Gantz, a former navy chief. “Netanyahu is coping with political survival, and harming the strategic relations with the USA.”
