Israel’s political turmoil bogs down US push for ceasefire
Summary
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the region at a sensitive time, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure after the resignation of a key rival.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in the Middle East on Monday in an effort to salvage cease-fire negotiations, as leaders from Hamas and Israel express skepticism toward President Biden’s peace plans.
Blinken’s trip—which includes stops in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar—comes at a sensitive time after eight months of fighting.
On Saturday, an Israeli military operation in central Gaza to rescue four hostages resulted in scores of Palestinian casualties. Strikes continued Monday in crowded areas of the Gaza Strip, days after Israel attacked a U.N. school-turned-shelter where thousands were staying and where Israel says some Hamas operatives were hiding.
Over the weekend, Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz, a centrist rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quit the war cabinet over what he said was a lack of long-term strategy in the war. The move could force early elections, but it also gives far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition—who have threatened to leave the government if Israel accepts a deal that halts the war—more sway in the shrinking majority Netanyahu holds in government.
“Gantz leaving and the increased influence from the far-right makes striking a cease-fire deal a lot less likely," said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East analyst at London-based think tank Chatham House. “Now things are really hanging by a thread."
Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, told Arab negotiators that he would accept a deal only if Israel commits to a permanent cease-fire, affirming Hamas’s position in his first response to a proposal introduced by Biden.
The three-phase plan outlined by Biden would begin with a complete cease-fire over six weeks, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza and the release of some hostages held by Hamas. The second phase would see a permanent end to the hostilities, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of remaining hostages. Phase three would involve a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza.
Israel and Hamas said that the terms set out by Biden don’t accurately reflect what has been offered to the militant group.
The Biden administration has enlisted Qatar and Egypt for help pressuring Hamas into accepting the U.S.-backed deal on the table, as Biden faces domestic pressure to end the war. At the behest of the U.S., Qatar and Egypt told Hamas leaders that they face potential arrest, sanctions and expulsions from Doha if they don’t agree to a deal, officials familiar with the talks said. Hamas leaders doubled down, saying a deal must meet the group’s conditions, including an end to the war.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities. The figure doesn’t specify how many were combatants. The war began after Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people in Israel, also mainly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Blinken is also attending a conference in Jordan this week on the humanitarian response in Gaza. The U.S. again began delivering aid to Gaza’s shore late last week after repairs were completed on a temporary pier built by the U.S. that had broken days earlier in the Mediterranean Sea.
