The Palestinian Islamist militia Hamas released a propaganda video this Saturday in which they appear two of the people he took hostage during the terrorist attack of October 7 and those he has kept in his possession since then.
The hostages who appear in the images are the American citizen Keith Samuel Siegel, who was kidnapped from his home in Kfar Azza, and Omri Miranwho was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
This same week Hamas released a first video featuring Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for not doing enough to free them.
After this second recording, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an organization that represents the families of the hostages, stated that “the Israeli Government must do everything possible to ensure the release of all hostages before Independence Day.” “, a festival that is celebrated next May 14.
The video comes to light when Israel and Hamas have not yet reached an agreement that would translate into a truce in the war that began as a result of that attack on October 7. Ceasefire of several weeks or Israeli military incursion in Rafah, the last great fiefdom of the Islamist group Hamas In the Gaza Strip, these are the scenarios that are opening up.
The coming days will dictate whether the devastating war takes a pause or enters into a new phase that will aggravate the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave and prolong the captivity of the Israelis kidnapped in the jihadist attack on October 7 against southern Israel.
After several meetings between representatives of the Egyptian and Israeli security agencies held in recent days in Tel Aviv and Cairothe new truce proposal does not imply the definitive end of the war (as Hamas demands) nor the release of all 133 hostages and the surrender and disarmament of the militia (as Israel demands) but it would lead the parties to a first phase of calm as a platform for perhaps a broader agreement.
“Hamas “has received the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” one of its leaders announced this Saturday from its headquarters in Doha, Jalil al Hayya, adding that they will study the document before give an answer.
Its leader in Gaza, Yahia Sinwar, has the last word about an initiative that, according to various leaks in Israeli and Arab media, establishes the release of between 20 and 40 kidnapped people included in the humanitarian category (young women, the elderly and the seriously ill) in the hands of Hamas (at least one day of truce for each released), the gradual return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, the release of Palestinian prisoners, a partial withdrawal of Israeli soldiers who, on the other hand, must not now commit to ending the massive offensive launched in response to the Hamas attack 204 days ago.
With Qatar in a more secondary role In recent weeks in mediation, Egypt and the United States have led efforts to achieve a humanitarian ceasefire that achieves three major short-term objectives: freeing hostages, alleviating the dramatic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and avoid a large-scale operation in Rafah that would hit the two previous goals and also strain Israel’s relations with Washington and Cairo.
“The talks with Egypt have been very positive and constructive, achieving progress in all parameters. We hope that the terrorist group Hamas does not reject the proposal again as it has done in recent months,” say Israeli sources, ensuring that their country is willing to carry out significant concessions for a humanitarian ceasefire that includes the release of at least 33 kidnapped people and not the 40 contemplated in the proposal agreed at the Paris summit in March. Hamas, for its part, alleges that it only has 20 under its control and in the humanitarian category.
Israel warns Hamas that the new truce proposal is its last chance to avoid an operation in Rafah. His warning, for the moment, seems to be taken more seriously and with concern by Egypt given that Rafah is a border area with the Sinai with all that this means in the event of an Israeli invasion.
Either for exert pressure at the negotiation table or as concrete and operational steps on the ground, the Army has completed all preparations for the ground incursion into Rafah. This includes and in coordination with the US a previous phase, expected to last several weeks, to allow the evacuation of civilians to humanitarian enclaves with tens of thousands of tents and field hospitals in other areas of the Palestinian strip.
“Now all that is missing is the green light from the cabinet,” say military sources in a message intended for both Hamas as well as the mediators to pressure the militia to accept the truce that Israel considers vital and urgent to free its own people given that with the passage of time, there are fewer and fewer alive. The Army and the majority of ministers in the war cabinet are in favor of an immediate ceasefire, giving priority to the hostages, while the ultranationalist wing of the Government, represented in two ministers, already demands “the offensive in Rafah to completely end with the terrorist regime in Gaza“.
The Rafah offensive-that the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces for three months to eliminate the last four Hamas battalions and seal the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt – has strong opposition from the international community since more than a million people displaced by the offensive in the north are crowded into that area. and center of the Gaza Strip.
USA that initially veto the operation outright, could ultimately tolerate a very limited incursion as long as Israel ensures the protection of civilians and their safe evacuation. However, the Biden Administration is pushing to avoid this and sees the ceasefire proposal as the best way to achieve it. Maybe the last one.
Hence the decision of the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to make a lightning visit to Israel next Tuesday from Saudi Arabia and the joint call with 17 other countries to Hamas to release immediately to the hostages and accept the proposed agreement that is on the table. “It would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza that would facilitate an increase in the necessary additional humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout the Gaza Strip and lead to a credible end to hostilities. Gazans would be able to return to their homes now their lands with advance preparations to guarantee shelter and humanitarian provisions,” says the letter signed by the countries whose citizens were also kidnapped in the attack by the armed wing of Hamas.
“US pressure does not influence us or modify our demand that the end of the war be part of any exchange agreement,” responded the Islamist leader Sami Abu Zuhri, reiterating Hamas’ demands: “Ensure the end of aggression, the withdrawal of the occupation, the return of the displaced, the entry of aid, shelter equipment and reconstruction.” While Israel and the US accuse Sinwar of torpedoing truce attempts in recent months, the Islamist movement blames Netanyahu for the failure in a negotiating process that is experiencing critical moments that will decide not only what happens in Rafah but also in the armed confrontation between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hizbul.