ShPresident Joe Biden called for expanding humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip before crisis talks resume. The White House said on Sunday that Biden stressed in a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that recent progress in aid delivery must continue and increase in full coordination with humanitarian organizations. Biden noted, among other things, preparations to open new border crossings in northern Israel starting this week.
Political observers rated the US President's choice of words in the conversation as less harsh than in a previous phone conversation. At the time, Biden made future US support for Israel in the Gaza war dependent on quick, measurable steps to protect civilians and aid workers.
Israel is under enormous international pressure to allow more aid into the closed area on the Mediterranean Sea, where the Israeli army has been fighting the Islamist Hamas movement since October. The country recently opened border crossings to deliver aid. The United Nations recently confirmed an increase in the number of trucks arriving, but is calling on Israel to take further steps to enable the delivery of more aid.
At a meeting of a number of Western and Arab foreign ministers in Riyadh on Monday, there are new efforts for a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of hostages held by Hamas. Among those expected are US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. In Cairo, a Hamas delegation also wants to deliver its response to the ceasefire proposal on Monday.
A senior Hamas representative on Sunday expressed a generally positive reaction to the latest Israeli proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release in the Gaza Strip. “The atmosphere is positive unless there are new Israeli obstacles,” he told AFP on Sunday. Hamas did not identify “any major problems” in the text submitted by Israel and Egypt.
She added that Biden and Netanyahu also discussed the Rafah issue during the conversation. Biden reiterated his clear position. The United States, Israel's most important ally, has repeatedly warned Netanyahu's government against launching a large-scale attack on the city of Rafah. The city on the border with Egypt is currently crowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees, but it is also the last major stronghold of Hamas.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Israel is ready to postpone military operations in Rafah if an agreement is reached regarding the hostages. However, hopes of reaching an agreement in indirect negotiations have been dashed repeatedly so far. In the conversation with Netanyahu, Biden referred to a statement in which he and 17 other heads of state and government called on Hamas to immediately release the hostages in order to achieve a ceasefire and provide relief to the residents of Gaza.
Pressure on Netanyahu is also increasing from within his ranks
Two Israeli ministers are pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu about a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for various reasons. If Netanyahu decides to “raise the white flag” and cancel the plan for a ground attack in Rafah, “the government you lead has no right to exist,” right-wing Finance Minister Belazil Smotrich wrote on the X online service on Sunday.
He continued: “The Egyptian deal is a humiliating surrender… It sentences the hostages to death, and above all, it constitutes an immediate existential threat to the State of Israel.”
For his part, former army commander and former Defense Minister Gantz, a member of Netanyahu's war cabinet, said that the Rafah invasion was „important in the long battle against Hamas,” but the return of the hostages was „urgent and extremely important.” “Importance.” If government ministers prevent the implementation of “a responsible plan to return the hostages, supported by the entire defense apparatus and which does not mean the end of the war,” then “the government no longer has the right to continue to exist.”