Joe Biden announced on Friday a plan to end hostilities in Gaza proposed by Israel, without commenting on the intensification of the Israeli offensive in Rafah, in the south of the territory, which continues this Sunday. Hamas considers the road map “positive”, but nothing has been signed yet
Intense airstrikes and artillery fire targeted the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on Saturday, the day after US President Joe Biden presented an Israeli road map for a ceasefire with Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, warned that the “conditions” for achieving a “permanent ceasefire” had not changed and included the “destruction” of the Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007, as well as the “release of all hostages” held in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli army, whose tanks entered the center of Rafah in recent days, continued its offensive on Saturday in this border town with Egypt, launched on May 7 in order, according to it, to destroy the last battalions of the Palestinian Islamist movement. In 24 hours, the war left at least 95 dead across the territory, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
Information to remember:
- A meeting is taking place this Sunday in Egypt with Israel and the United States on the issue of the Rafah crossing.
- Israeli far-right ministers threaten to leave government.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel and Hamas to “seize the moment” to achieve “lasting peace in the Middle East.”
“The Israelis will not stop the war until Hamas is militarily destroyed”
“I am extremely cautious about the possibility of achieving a real ceasefire. Firstly because the Israelis will not stop the war until Hamas has been militarily destroyed and secondly , Hamas will not agree to deliver the last hostages it still has until they themselves have the assurance that the Israelis will not go through with it. So, I will be for it. extremely cautious moment”, declared the geopolitologist at the microphone of Europe 1
Finalize a ceasefire agreement
Qatari, American and Egyptian mediators on Saturday called on Israel and Palestinian Hamas to “finalize” a ceasefire agreement based on the plan announced by President Joe Biden, in the 8th month of their war in the Gaza Strip . In the Palestinian territory, Israeli bombardments by air and land continued to target the city of Rafah (south), which became the epicenter of the war triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7.
As mediators in the conflict, “Qatar, the United States and Egypt jointly call on Hamas and Israel to finalize the agreement based on the principles set out by President Joe Biden (…), which include the demands of all parties,” said the three countries in a joint statement.
3 phase plan
Friday evening, Joe Biden announced a road map proposed by him by Israel which aims to achieve, in stages and under conditions, a permanent ceasefire, and he called on Hamas to accept it. The first phase, he said, would be a ceasefire with an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza for six weeks.
The end of the fighting would be accompanied in particular by the release of certain hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack and held in Gaza, especially women and the sick, and by the release of Palestinians detained by Israel. The contours of phase two of the plan will be negotiated during the six-week ceasefire, according to Joe Biden. In the event of successful negotiations, the fighting stops definitively and all the hostages still held in Gaza return home, including soldiers. And Israeli forces are completely withdrawing from the territory.
Biden is our only hope”
A few hours after Joe Biden’s declaration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to twice reaffirm Israel’s “conditions” for a permanent ceasefire as part of this plan: the “destruction” of Hamas , the “release of all hostages” and “the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat” to the Israeli state. And Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, simply said that it considered “positively” the road map announced by Joe Biden, after having reiterated its demands for a permanent ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza before any agreement, conditions rejected by Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu is caught in the crossfire. On the one hand, his far-right ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, threatened to leave his government if he went ahead with the deal. On the other hand, thousands of Israelis took to the streets again to demand the release of the hostages. “Biden is our only hope,” a demonstrator in Tel Aviv, Abigail Zur, told AFP.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, the majority of them civilians according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures. Of the 252 people kidnapped during the attack, 121 are still being held in Gaza, of whom 37 are dead, according to the army.
