White House spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that President Joe Biden's Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, is in the Qatari capital, Doha, to hold discussions on the possibilities of concluding another prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

This is McGurk's second trip to Doha this month to discuss the issue of detained prisoners, after a visit he made on January 9.

According to what the American website "Axios" reported on Sunday, McGurk is expected to meet with the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani in Doha, during his visit.

McGurk visited Cairo yesterday, Tuesday, to hold “serious” discussions regarding the release of prisoners detained in Gaza, and reaching a humanitarian truce in Gaza, according to what Kirby announced.

In recent hours, information has increased about the possibility of reaching a new truce in the Gaza Strip, according to which more prisoners and detainees from both sides will be released. In this context, Reuters said yesterday, Tuesday, that Israel and Hamas have largely agreed, in principle, to the possibility of exchanging Israeli detainees for Palestinian prisoners during a month-long truce.

The agency quoted three sources as saying that the framework plan was delayed due to differences between the two sides regarding how to reach a permanent end to the war in Gaza.

Today, Wednesday, the Israeli occupation government ruled out a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. A government spokeswoman denied media reports indicating the possibility of reaching a new agreement with Hamas, according to which the fighting would be halted in exchange for the release of prisoners.

Spokeswoman Ilana Stein said in a press briefing: “Commenting on news about ceasefire agreements, Israel will not abandon the destruction of Hamas and the return of all hostages, and Gaza will not pose a security threat to Israel.” She added: "There will be no ceasefire. There were truces for humanitarian purposes. Hamas violated this agreement."

The American Wall Street Journal had previously said that the United States, Egypt and Qatar are pressuring Israel and Hamas to reach a prisoner exchange deal, which would lead to a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.

The new proposal, supported by Washington, Cairo and Doha, according to the newspaper, aims to reach a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, by agreeing on prisoner and detainee exchange deals between the two parties.

This comes as the official spokesman for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majed Al-Ansari, confirmed on Tuesday that Qatari mediation regarding the Israeli war on Gaza is continuing, and that much of the information published in this regard is false.

Al-Ansari said, in a press conference, that there are serious negotiations taking place in this regard, and that the Qatari mediation is working to reach a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, explaining that there is no “direct impact so far of the killing of Israeli soldiers in Gaza on the negotiation process.”

Source: Reuters, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed

A decision is far from Israel's reach, according to what its military analysts confirm almost unanimously, for many other reasons, including: its inability to achieve significant progress in causing damage to what they describe as "weapon and ammunition manufacturing factories" in the possession of "Hamas."

The Palestinian resistance’s confrontation with the Israeli war machine in the Gaza Strip, as well as its steadfastness, despite the war approaching the end of its fourth month, requires more Israeli recognition of the impossibility of reaching a decisive point in the ongoing battles.

The culmination of these confessions, in the past few days, was represented by what was issued by two former senior military and security leaders: the first is the former Chief of Staff of the Army and Minister in the Military Ministerial Council, Gadi Eisenkot, who confirmed that anyone who talks about absolute decisiveness does not say the truth, he tells fairy tales. The second is the former head of the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and former minister, Yaakov Peri, who indicated that the Israeli army is still far from resolving the war and from achieving the goals that were set to achieve resolution.

Coinciding with the time of writing these lines, soldiers in the Israeli army and officers in the reserve formations organized a protest activity against their discharge from military service under the slogan “We were discharged without the battle being won.” Although the protest expresses anger due to the lack of intention to reach a resolution, at the same time, it reveals the inability to achieve it, and what Israel has not been able to achieve until now due to its declaration of war on Gaza.

It is noted in more than one place in the published Israeli war literature that among the direct motives for talking about decisiveness and the eagerness for it and its necessity, there is the most prominent motive for Israel to achieve what is described as a distinguished achievement that would be equivalent to the great achievement recorded by the Al-Aqsa Flood attack by the movement. Hamas on October 7. To clarify what is meant, it is sufficient to quote what the former Knesset member and former Secretary of the Israeli Government, Zvi Hauser, said: The worst portent of the Al-Aqsa flood attack, which should preoccupy Israel for a long time, is that there is a loss of any feelings of fear and dread from it, which is something that would lead to a strategic achievement. Long-term, on a level beyond the Palestinian arena, it will only be squandered by a parallel Israeli strategic achievement embodied in the dismantling of Hamas’ capabilities, which is something that no indications have yet accumulated that it is actually happening, or is about to happen. In his opinion, the measure of restoring Israeli deterrence lies in restoring this feeling of fear of the strict Israeli reaction, and this is not suggested by the developments of the war in Gaza.

We must go on to say here that what is important about these approaches, and others like them widely spread in various Israeli media outlets, is to highlight some of the failures that affect the Israeli military performance in the context of the ongoing war on Gaza. However, it may be an appeal for Israel not to feel itself more powerful than it was, and at the same time, it indicates, albeit unintentionally, the capabilities and capabilities of the Palestinian resistance.

We must also add that a solution is out of reach for Israel, according to what its military analysts almost unanimously confirm, for many other reasons, including: its inability to achieve significant progress in causing damage to what they describe as “weapon and ammunition manufacturing factories” that it possesses. agitation"; The difficulty of releasing prisoners and abductees; Its inability to harm the leaders of the military wing of the Hamas movement. In addition to what was reported by foreign media from high-level Israeli military sources regarding the war not progressing according to the pace that was expected by the Israeli military establishment at its beginning. There was an expectation that the army would have operational control over the cities of Gaza, Khan Yunis, and Rafah by the end of 2023. But while this goal was achieved in Gaza City, the battles in Khan Yunis continue, and Israeli forces have not begun any serious operations in Rafah, located in the far south of the Strip.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague will announce, the day after tomorrow, Friday, its decision on accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has been witnessing an ongoing war for 110 days.

Earlier this month, South Africa asked the International Court of Justice to order an emergency suspension of Israel's devastating war in the Gaza Strip, accusing it of carrying out state-led genocide.

Israel rejected the genocide charge as "grossly distorted" and claimed that it had the right to defend itself and that it was targeting Hamas, not Palestinian civilians.

In the initial ruling, the ICJ will not deal with the main question of whether Israel is committing genocide. The court will only consider potential emergency measures, intended as a type of restraining order while the court considers the entire case, which usually takes years.

On the 12th of this month, during the second session of the International Court of Justice regarding its accusation of committing genocide crimes in its war on Gaza, which has been ongoing for 98 days, Israel claimed that its response to the attack of last October 7 was “legitimate and respects international law.” 

It claimed that the Israeli army “did not violate the rules of war, there will be an Israeli judicial investigation, and there was no intention to carry out genocide.”

Israel's legal team called on the court to "reject South Africa's request, because it deprives Israel of defending itself and of recovering 136 hostages."

In the first session of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South Africa accused Israel before the International Court of Justice of committing acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and stressed that the attack launched by Hamas cannot justify what it is committing in the Gaza Strip. It called for the immediate suspension of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue its war against the Gaza Strip until “overwhelming victory and the achievement of its goals,” indicating that the International Court of Justice “will not stop” the ongoing war on the Strip.

Reports indicated that the prevailing expectations in Israel are that the International Court of Justice will issue a precautionary decision against it in the framework of the South African lawsuit.

The legal expert, Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, pointed out in the newspaper "Haaretz" that "whatever the decision in The Hague will be, it is important to realize that only a short distance separates us from the accusation of genocide or other crimes against humanity."

He added earlier this month, "This distance will remain short, and will bring us into an area of extreme danger. If Israel responded to the statements of the reckless ministers and tightened the noose around the necks of all Gazans to the point of starvation and death, many countries would stand against us in The Hague, committed to preventing the crime of genocide and punishing its perpetrators. The credit for this goes to the United States” by obliging Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

By Tamir Hayman

The US Initiative for Regional Change includes the following:

1. - Continued Israeli security responsibility with the kidnapped deal.
2. - Normalization with Saudi Arabia.
3. - Replacing Hamas's control with the control of a new Palestinian authority, which has characteristics different from the current authority.
4. - An American-Saudi defense alliance against Iran and the axis of resistance.
5. - Saudi support and money for the reconstruction of Gaza (instead of the pro-Hamas Qatari support)

Now clarifications:

This proposal exists only thanks to operational achievements and military successes in the field.

The offensive effort must not be stopped, and it is important to deepen it.

The proposal is the basis for negotiations on a ceasefire, not for stopping the fighting.

I want to clarify some of the concepts that have taken root and could cause turmoil in the relationship with the army, and with regard to the goals set by the political echelon of the army, and the concept of “the day after the war”: Is the army fighting separately, without any relationship to what the political echelon has set for the day after the war? Is it possible to maintain combat effectiveness without the guidance of the political level regarding the strategy for exiting the war?

In addition, “the army” is a very broad term, and talk about “after the war” is very vague. In order to preserve the Army's achievements and combat effectiveness, the government must determine the desired end state. The security system must work to achieve this, and the General Staff must direct the army there. At the level of tactical leadership, for a company commander, or a brigade commander, it does not change anything who will control Gaza after the war, but this does not apply to the level of the General Staff, which works according to the directives of the political level in order to transfer responsibility to the party that will replace “Hamas.” ".

Regarding the concept of “the day after the war,” we must learn a lesson from what happened in the northern Gaza Strip. The violent fighting is over, and Hamas is returning, because the chaos facilitates the return of its control.

In conclusion, it can be said that the fighting is not strong enough, and political thinking is not proactive enough. What is happening in northern Gaza applies to all other regions, without talking about the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphia axis.

In a lengthy article on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that as the Israeli military begins to gradually withdraw from Gaza, the gains it has made against Hamas are significant but incomplete, Israeli military and security officials say, and are threatened by the lack of a postwar strategy.

“Although intense ground fighting continues in Khan Yunis and other parts of the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli army says it is moving away from large-scale bombing and moving to a more focused campaign of targeted raids and assassinations, with the aim of eliminating Hamas’ military leadership,” according to the newspaper.

The newspaper documents how the Israeli war on Gaza destroyed most of the northern part of the Strip and killed more than 25,000 people, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 70% of whom were women and children.

The Washington Post spoke with seven current and former Israeli officials and reservists about the progress of the war in Gaza and its ultimate goals. Most spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military strategy.

“The war has damaged Hamas as a terrorist entity, but this is not a three-month mission,” a military official said.

The Israeli occupation army claims that at least 9,000 Palestinian fighters have been killed (without showing evidence), less than a third of the 30,000 Hamas fighters who are estimated to still be in control of the fighting. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, His senior aides are at large. The movement does not publish figures on the number of people killed in the war, but a Hamas official denied the Israeli figures.

The newspaper quotes a Hamas official (on condition that his name not be mentioned) as saying, “I think the Israelis are trying to embellish their achievements.”

The newspaper claims that Hamas's relatively long-range rocket launches from Gaza, which numbered in the thousands at the beginning of the war, have largely stopped. Israel says it destroyed thousands of weapons stockpiles, missile production sites and tunnel corridors over three months of door-to-door battles. But without a "day after" strategy, officials say, these achievements could be fleeting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist that the complete elimination of Hamas remains the goal of the war. “It is not just about striking Hamas, and this is not another round with Hamas – this (should be) a complete victory,” he said, but since the beginning of the war, “military commanders have been adopting a more realistic view, believing that under the current circumstances, it is possible to weaken The group (Hamas), however, cannot be destroyed. As Israel begins to reduce its operations in Gaza, this undeclared tension has begun to spread to public opinion,” according to the newspaper.

Gadi Eisenkot, the former army commander whose son was killed in Gaza last month, accused Netanyahu in a recent interview of telling “tall tales” about the war.

Eisenkot said: “No strategic achievement has been reached; we have not demolished Hamas.”

At least 21 Israeli soldiers were killed on Monday when Hamas militants fired a shell at a tank near two buildings slated for demolition, the Israeli military said, setting off the explosives — the deadliest incident for Israeli forces in Gaza. Since the start of the war, 221 soldiers have been killed.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters on Tuesday that the number of troops and the intensity of fighting in Gaza will continue to fluctuate.

“More reservists will be needed on all battlefields, so the IDF is working by freeing up forces and focusing our activities,” he said.

Israeli officials did not reveal the number of forces still in Gaza and the number of forces that had withdrawn. There are still at least three combat brigades on the ground, according to an IDF statement issued earlier this month. The Golani Brigade, a special infantry unit, withdrew from Shujaiya in Gaza City last month.

Some soldiers have been repositioned along the northern border with Lebanon, where the threat of a broader war looms; thousands more have returned home, to their jobs and families, which the government hopes will help revive Israel's war-torn economy.

On the Lebanese border, the Israelis fear a new kind of war with Hezbollah

The military official said the ground and air operation in Gaza effectively dismantled the majority of the five Hamas brigades – made up of 24 battalions, each containing up to 1,400 fighters. The official said that more than 100 leaders were killed.

Israeli officials claim that 17 of Hamas's 24 battalions, mostly in the central and northern parts of the Strip, have been disabled to the point that they more closely resemble small groups of fighters than proper military units. But officials admit there are thousands of militants.

“It changes from structure to pile, but the pile can still resist you,” the dean said. General Assaf Orion, a reserve officer who was on active duty after the Hamas attacks. He added: "This does not mean that Hamas is dead, but they certainly cannot do what they did on October 7."

The Hamas tunnel network turned out to be much more extensive than the IDF's previous estimates, extending more than 300 miles in the south alone, according to the military official. The Israeli army has discovered more than 5,600 tunnels, according to a former security official familiar with the intelligence, and many have been destroyed. But the scale of the underground network, built secretly over many years, means it is unlikely to be completely dismantled.

The former security official said the majority of Israeli assassinations in Gaza targeted low- and mid-ranking members of Hamas – part of a strategy to strip the group of a “critical mass” of fighters.

He said the Israeli army had “become rigid,” and was tasked with maintaining control over quiet areas rather than trying to gain more territory.

In northern and central Gaza, the pace of war has slowed enough to enable some Palestinians to return to their destroyed neighborhoods, although rebuilding is a distant hope. In the south, more than a million displaced people are gathering near the Egyptian border. Relief organizations warn that diseases are spreading, and that more than 90% of Gaza's population do not have enough food.

“However, small cells of Hamas fighters, hidden in tunnels and building rubble, still pose a deadly threat,” the newspaper says. “After a barrage of rockets were fired from the Strip last week towards the southern city of Netivot, Israeli forces were able to quickly surround the launch site in the center of Gaza and killed several fighters, according to a military official familiar with the operation — foreshadowing the kind of missile raids and targeted strikes that will likely characterize the next phase of the war.

But how can Israel prevent a weakened Hamas from rebuilding? This remains an open and confusing question for military leaders. The entity that ultimately rules Gaza — whether it is the Palestinian Authority, as the United States calls for, or an international force, an idea floated by some Israeli officials — will determine whether IDF forces can operate from permanent locations inside the Strip or respond only from bases across borders.

Opinion polls show that remaining inside would be tantamount to reoccupying Gaza, a goal supported by far-right politicians but strongly opposed by Washington and most Israelis. A long-term security presence, which would make Israel responsible for Palestinian civilians and expose troops to constant threats, was dismissed as a “nightmare scenario” by most of the security establishment, according to the military source.

Laura Moses-Lustiger is a French-Israeli law student and novelist, great-niece of Cardinal Lustiger [who was archbishop of Paris]. In this text, she recounts her shock and anger after the October 7 attacks, and her subsequent shame for not having shown empathy toward the Palestinians under the bombs. In her opinion, the vocation of the Jewish people is to bring "their share of light to the world."

Some situations are intolerable and must be condemned. When Hamas committed its massacre on October 7, raping, killing and kidnapping civilians, women, men, children and the elderly - the number of victims rose to 1,200 dead and almost 200 hostages - my predominant feeling was horror and anger. A black anger. You have to realize that in this small country that is Israel, which has an area of about 20,000 km² (compared to France's 549,087 km², for example), everyone has lost someone. In my case, friends; in others, brothers, mothers and children.

I see this anger and collapse today in my relatives on the "other side." More than 20,000 Gazans have died since the bombing began; 2.3 million of them have been left homeless, without access to water or electricity. In practical terms, this means that an entire population has no roof, cannot be warmed or protected from the rain, cannot drink to quench its thirst, go to the bathroom or wash. These millions of people are stripped of their most basic dignity, not to mention the constant terror caused by the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli suffering, Palestinian suffering

After October 7, I spoke with a friend who very calmly explained to me that all decolonization wars were fought with violence, using Algeria as an example, rationalizing my deaths and including them in the course of history. And I am ashamed to realize that until now I have felt the same lack of empathy towards yours. The magnitude of Israel's suffering blinded me to that of its neighbors. In a fragmented, polarized world, where the majority of people access information on social networks subject to algorithms, it is up to us to open our eyes to the plurality of suffering; realize that it is possible to mourn one's own dead while taking into account those of others, and judge both as intolerable.

If the numbers tattooed on my grandfather's arm and the stories passed down by my grandmother, a girl who had to remain hidden, have taught me anything, it is that indifference can cost lives. And this contributed to the extermination of many members of my family, in France, Germany and Poland. However, this legacy has also taught me that sometimes it only takes the will of one man to save others. In my grandfather's case, that of an American soldier during a death march; in my grandmother's case, that of two nuns who ran a Catholic boarding school.

The boycott is a nonviolent protest tool that has long been used by Protestant and Catholic churches. In 2015, the Cardinal of Cologne called for a boycott of the World Cup in Qatar, an ecological and political aberration.

repair the world

An important concept in Judaism is that of "Tikun Olam", the repair of the world. And I firmly believe that the survival of the Jewish people, despite the destruction of the temples, the exile, the pogroms, the Inquisition and the Shoah, is due not only to the will to live, which is almost a fury, but to the willingness to contribute their part of light to the world. And that's what we have to do now. Except it's not the world we have to fix, but our house. The one we share with a people who have suffered alongside us since 1948, the year of our war of independence and its Nakba.

On October 20, my mother sent me this quote from philosopher Simone Weil: "Pain and suffering are a currency that passes from hand to hand, until they reach someone who receives them but does not pass them on." Like everything on the internet, I don't even know if the quote is true. What I do know is that my mother had just returned from spending the day harvesting tomatoes in a field on the outskirts of Gaza after the disappearance of the labor force, but also after several months of demonstrations against the radicalization of the government of Benyamin Netanyahu and the colonization.

I can imagine what that quote did to my mother, as she drove home at the end of the day, tired, desolate and angry, watching the sky change color, and as she got closer to the city, seeing the people leaving. He hurried back home with the purchase in hand. A feeling, in the face of the greatness and banality of everyday joys that know no borders, religion or language, that of hope in man.

With this hope I see that the Palestinian cause, whether it is Gaza or the occupation, is not only a cause of the progressive camps, nor of the Arab world, but also a Jewish cause. If the last 75 years have taught us anything, if the wars, intifadas and the thousands of deaths since 1948 have enlightened us, it is that the only solution to this tragedy lies in coexistence and peace between our two peoples.

A leading source in the Palestinian resistance said that there is “clear progress in the ceasefire talks in Gaza, but this progress is still in its infancy.”

The source continued, speaking to Al-Mayadeen TV, that “Israel” informed the mediators that it was “interested in reaching a deal in stages with the resistance, which could end with a long-term cessation of the war.”

He also pointed out that "Hamas is insisting on an agreement for a complete and comprehensive ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza," adding that "Hamas is insisting on rapid and urgent relief for humanitarian cases, the medical situation, reconstruction, and the release of prisoners."

Yesterday, the American Associated Press reported that Egypt and Qatar are working to develop a multi-stage proposal to try to “bridge the gaps.” The proposal will include "ending the war, releasing prisoners, and presenting a vision for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that the Security Council had failed to play a role "to end the bloodshed because of the United States, which refuses to call for a ceasefire."

Lavrov pointed out that Russia had presented proposals and draft resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza, “but the United States blocked them,” blaming the United States for the possibility of an extension of the conflict in the Middle East.

This comes at a time when protests are escalating by settlers and families of prisoners, for the return of Israeli prisoners from Gaza, demanding the completion of an exchange deal “immediately” with the Palestinian resistance, stressing that it is an “urgent and clear mission” and the only way that will allow the release of the prisoners.

In turn, the Palestinian resistance confirms that it will not negotiate over the Israeli prisoners until after the end of the war on Gaza, rejecting any temporary agreements.

  The Times newspaper published a report prepared by Anshel Beaver in which he said that pro-fire sentiment in Gaza may be increasing after the bloodiest days of the Gaza war.

He said that the Israeli army's loss of 22 of its soldiers in 24 hours would increase the internal debate about the course of the war. While three paratroopers were killed during an attack on Hamas, the killing of 21 other soldiers will increase public concern. They were killed in an area in the Gaza Strip, only hundreds of meters away from the border that is supposed to be under Israeli control. The soldiers, all reserve forces, were preparing to destroy two buildings that the Israeli army claimed were used by Hamas to carry out attacks on October 7 on Kibbutz Kissufim.

Two missiles were fired from an ambush, and one of them detonated explosives in the two buildings, before the soldiers were able to leave them. This is not the time in the war that soldiers were killed with the explosives they used to destroy tunnels and buildings that Israel claims Hamas used as military sites.

  The killing of the soldiers raises questions about the Israeli army’s plans to continue dismantling Hamas’ infrastructure. There is still a network of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels used by fighters in Gaza, but the continued destruction of the tunnels means more deaths among soldiers on the battlefield. Then there are questions about what Israel will do in the areas where it says it has dismantled Hamas combat teams, and how it will deploy forces there.

Most of the reserve soldiers who were mobilized at the beginning of the war were demobilized, but the Israeli army is still concerned about Hamas’ ability to return, and therefore it will place soldiers to guard the corridors and buffer zones at the border. This represents a recipe for more ambushes and casualties.

  While some army leaders and politicians still believe in the importance of continuing military pressure on Hamas, a large percentage of Israelis are now pressing for a long truce, or a ceasefire that would allow the liberation of 136 hostages in Azza, 29 of whom are presumed dead.

Recent days have witnessed an increase in demonstrations led by families of hostages who staged a sit-in in front of the two homes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Caesarea. Some demonstrators poured liquid on a street leading to Netanyahu's house in Jerusalem, and accused him of having his hands stained with the blood of hostages.

  Netanyahu faces an immediate problem, which is the willingness of a faction in the war government he leads to discuss a ceasefire in exchange for hostages. Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, both members of the opposition, believe in this position and have threatened to leave the war government if a decision is not made.

At the same time, Israel's ally, the United States, along with Saudi Arabia, is pressing the need for Israel to determine post-war plans in Gaza, and to include a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and handing over the administration of the region to the National Authority. It seems that the two countries want to guide Israel towards a diplomatic solution that leads to two states, a solution opposed by Netanyahu, who ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state.

On the other hand, Netanyahu's allies in the government coalition are stressing the continuation of the war, and they, who are from the extreme right-wing nationalist wing, have threatened to leave the coalition if the Prime Minister agrees to a ceasefire, either as an exchange of hostages, or to ease American pressure. Netanyahu does not want to lose his majority in the Knesset, which would expose him to new elections amid a decline in his popularity in opinion polls. With the increase in deaths among the ranks of the Israeli army, and popular pressure for a ceasefire, he will find it difficult to stay with the extremists.

Source: Sama News

Prisoners' institutions said that the Israeli forces carried out more than (6,255) arrests in West Bank cities since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, until the end of last December.

The institutions added in a statement today, Wednesday, that Israel arrested (210) women during the aforementioned period, and this statistic includes women who were arrested from the lands of 1948, and more than (355) children, pointing out that the outcome of the arrest campaigns includes all those who were arrested from homes and through military checkpoints, and those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were detained.

It explained that the number of arrests among journalists reached (50), of whom (35) remained in detention, and (20) of whom were transferred to administrative detention.

It confirmed that administrative detention orders amounted to (2,990) orders, including new and renewed orders, including orders issued against children and women, stressing that these statistics do not include any information about the number of arrests from Gaza.

The institutions indicated that the ongoing arrest campaigns are accompanied by escalating crimes and violations, including: torture and severe beatings, threats against detainees and their families, widespread vandalism and destruction of citizens’ homes, and the seizure of vehicles, money, and gold jewelry, in addition to the widespread destruction operations that affected the infrastructure, specifically in Tulkarm camps, Jenin and its camp.

It stated that the aforementioned period witnessed the death of 7 detainees inside Israeli detention centers.

The prisoner institutions confirmed that the total number of detainees in the Israeli detention centers reached more than (8800) at the end of last December, including more than (3290) administrative detainees, and (661) were classified as (illegal combatants) from Gaza detainees. This number is only available as a clear indication from the prison administration.

The Israeli army is considering arming “alert teams” (alert teams) in the occupied West Bank settlements with anti-tank missiles, under the pretext of confronting events similar to the Al-Qassam attack on the 7th of last October.

This came according to what Haaretz newspaper reported on its website, today, Wednesday. The Israeli army confirmed, according to the newspaper, that this step is “under review and research,” under the pretext of thwarting a vehicle attack targeting settlements in the West Bank.

The newspaper said, "The Israeli army held discussions about the possibility of arming alert teams in isolated settlements adjacent to Palestinian towns with anti-tank missiles, during which the leaders did not express their opposition to this step."

According to the newspaper, the implementation of this step is subject to “the final approval of the senior leadership in the army and security services.”

It added, "The proposed step aims to (provide appropriate weapons) to deal with a scenario in which saboteurs (according to her expression) raid settlements with cars, similar to what happened on October 7 in the 'Gaza envelope' area."

The newspaper stated that this step comes “against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the West Bank and pressure exerted by senior right-wing officials, as well as military security centers in the settlements, since the start of the war” on the Gaza Strip.

"Alert teams" are armed civilian groups made up of citizens that perform security functions in emergency situations and fall under the army's Home Front Command.

The newspaper reported that the army has strengthened its arming of "alert teams" in the occupied West Bank settlements, including supplying them with large quantities of weapons and ammunition. After the outbreak of the war, these teams were provided with “thousands of pistols, M16 rifles, and MAG machine guns.”

According to the proposal, the anti-tank missiles will be distributed to the commanders of the “alert teams” and they will be asked to keep them in a weapons depot or in any other way that the Israeli army may determine.

Those responsible for using anti-tank missiles will be "commanders of alert teams and military security centers in the settlements."

The newspaper quoted the Israeli army as saying, “This step aims to strengthen the defense of the settlements, so that their residents can respond quickly in the event of a mass and vehicle raid, as happened in the massacre that took place around the Gaza Strip.”

The army added that Hamas members "used cars and motorcycles (on October 7), and until the arrival of the Air Force, members of the security forces and citizens who were defending themselves found it difficult to confront these vehicles."

Dozens of displaced citizens were killed, and others were injured, as a result of an Israeli artillery shelling that targeted an educational building belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli artillery targeted the UNRWA Industrial School building in Khan Yunis, which houses more than 10,000 displaced people. The bombing led to the outbreak of a huge fire in their tents, killing and wounding dozens, noting that occupation tanks have been surrounding the building for several days.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that the occupation forces surrounded its crews inside the society’s building and Al-Amal Hospital, and imposed a curfew in their vicinity.

Medical sources confirmed that Israeli army isolated the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, which is in dire need of medical and food supplies and fuel, as it houses hundreds of injured and sick people, and maternity cases facing serious complications due to the siege.

Reuters said that South Africa expects the International Court of Justice to issue a ruling on Gaza the day after tomorrow, Friday.

For its part, Israeli Channel 13 reported news of the ruling being issued next Friday.

South Africa recently filed a lawsuit with the court, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu reiterated his position calling for dropping a nuclear weapon on the Gaza Strip.

The Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz" said on Wednesday: "During a visit to the city of Hebron (south) of the West Bank, the Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage, Amichai Eliyahu, reaffirmed his call to drop a nuclear weapon on the Gaza Strip."

It added that Eliyahu "pointed out that the International Court of Justice, which is examining genocide cases against Israel, knows my positions."

South Africa included a previous statement by Eliahu about dropping a nuclear weapon on Gaza as a call to commit “genocide crimes” in Gaza.

Eliyahu made a statement for the first time regarding the bombing of Gaza with a nuclear bomb at the beginning of last November, and it sparked objectionable reactions at the international level.

On January 11 and 12, the International Court of Justice in The Hague held two public hearings as part of the start of consideration of the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel on charges of committing “genocide crimes” against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On December 29, South Africa filed a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a fierce war for more than 3 months.

On the International Day of Education approved by the United Nations General Assembly, on January 24 of each year, to celebrate the role that education plays in achieving peace and development, Israel deprives more than 625,000 students in Gaza of education, due to its ongoing aggression against the Strip.

According to what was reported by the official Palestinian News Agency, since the beginning of the aggression, the educational system has lost 4,551 students and 8,193 were injured, including more than 4,510 killed and 7,911 wounded in the Gaza Strip. It indicated that 41 students were killed and 282 others were wounded in the West Bank, in addition to the arrest of 85.

Israeli army forces asked more than 500,000 Palestinians to leave the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, after previously declaring it a “safe zone.”

According to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on Wednesday, Israel called on civilians living in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, to evacuate the area.

The report indicated that at least 500,000 Palestinians live in the city, including 425,000 internally displaced people, and about 88,000 city residents.

It pointed out that civilians who were displaced due to Israeli attacks took refuge in the city's three hospitals.

The Israeli army had previously repeatedly warned residents of the northern Gaza Strip against heading to the south, which it claimed was safe, and forcibly deported them, causing major destruction of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.

As Israeli military losses in Gaza increase, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself in a dilemma, The Guardian reported. His popularity has declined, and opinion polls indicate that the right-wing Likud Party led by Netanyahu will lose half of its seats in immediate elections to a renewed centrist opposition.

The newspaper points out that voters have not forgotten the blatant failures that allowed Hamas to attack southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing 1,200 people, including 311 soldiers, according to Israeli reports, and kidnapping about 240. But the lack of tangible results from the Israeli attack On Gaza, which was supposed to lead to “complete victory” over Hamas, has now also become important.

The declared Israeli military losses rose to 221 soldiers killed and thousands wounded, and no strategic breakthrough occurred. “Although Hamas has lost seriously, its senior leadership remains intact, and rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza again last week,” according to the newspaper.

The newspaper notes that "political differences", which froze in Israel following the October 7 attacks, have now begun to return to the forefront again, and the Israeli media have begun to talk about "renewed opposition" to Netanyahu. Seasoned observers caution against exaggerating any appeasement, noting the lack of any mass mobilization and how most Israelis remain immersed in their personal grief, or fears about their relatives in uniform.

But there are signs of change. Relatives of hostages still in Gaza have become more vocal. In recent days, they closed a highway and disrupted a committee hearing in Parliament.

Last week, Gadi Eisenkot, the former army chief of staff and a member of the small war cabinet that Netanyahu formed after the October attack, accused the prime minister of misleading the public into believing a quick victory in Gaza was possible. The criticism has resonated, not least because Eisenkot's son, a soldier, was killed there in December.

The newspaper quotes Professor Gideon Rahat, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as saying: “In the long term, the human toll becomes great because people begin to wonder what return they are getting for this high price.” "Politicians have declared that victories will come too quickly and this is problematic."

Analysts point out that Netanyahu could get a boost in the polls - albeit in the short term - if he agrees to a deal with Hamas to release the hostages. But even agreeing to a short halt to the offensive in Gaza could cause Netanyahu to lose the support of far-right politicians who are important to his coalition government. This will not end his rule, but it will seriously undermine it.

There are multiple scenarios for what will happen over the coming months. Many of which saw Netanyahu leave office.

Some analysts believe that early elections are possible. Others say that no politician would risk an election in wartime, but admit that the parliamentary calculations for a successful vote of no confidence do not currently correspond to reality. Netanyahu's opposition is also hopelessly divided.

Netanyahu has been in power longer than Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion, and faces possible imprisonment on corruption charges. He has been in difficult situations before, and survived, and even if elections were called tomorrow, it could take six months before a new government is formed.

There are estimates that the overthrow of Netanyahu is not inevitable and certainly not immediate. “He (Netanyahu) is in a different class than anyone else in the current political landscape and he thrives under pressure,” one political insider told the newspaper, but Israeli public opinion is divided. Protesters in recent days, including veterans discharged from combat in Gaza, with a tougher commitment to the attack that killed 25,000 Palestinians in the Strip, most of them women and children. The families of the hostages also have different views.

“Netanyahu’s decision is not to make a decision and to stall in the hope that something will happen,” Merav Zonszin, an Israeli analyst at the International Crisis Group, told the newspaper. He added: "There is still a consensus that war is justified, but people increasingly want someone else to take over the leadership and believe that Netanyahu should go, not at an unclear later date but now."

Supporters and relatives of hostages detained in Gaza stormed a meeting in the Israeli parliament, on Monday, to demand that lawmakers take greater measures to secure the release of their relatives from Gaza.

The protest reflects the “growing frustration” of the hostage families, who have become “increasingly concerned about the fate of their family members as the war, which has already entered its fourth month, continues,” according to the New York Times.

“You will not sit here while they die there,” he wrote on banners raised by some demonstrators who boycotted the Finance Committee meeting in the Knesset.

Last week, current and former Israeli security officials indicated that a deal with Hamas would be the only way to return the hostages to Israel safely.

An Israeli political official denied reports that preliminary agreements had been reached between Israel and Hamas within the framework of negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal. The source said, "Reports that Israel and Hamas have agreed in principle to a ceasefire are incorrect."

According to him, "There are very big gaps and there is no progress in the talks. They are very complicated and there is a continuing hardening of positions on the part of Hamas. No one should be deceived - it will take a long time."

Egyptian sources told the American Wall Street Journal this morning that Hamas is open to discussing a prisoner agreement in exchange for a large truce of up to a month.

Today, Wednesday, Israeli sources denied news suggesting that there would be substantial progress in prisoner exchange negotiations with Hamas and a temporary ceasefire, according to what Reuters and American newspapers reported, which reported in their reports that Israel and Hamas had agreed in principle to an exchange deal.

Israel and the Hamas movement agreed, in principle, on the possibility of conducting an exchange deal in stages, during which the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, during a truce that would last a month, according to Reuters and American newspapers.

In response to a question about the negotiations, a senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters that the movement is open to discussing ideas, but no agreement has been reached yet.

Abu Zuhri said, "We are open to all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on ending the aggression and complete withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip."

Reuters quoted three sources as saying, "The framework plan was delayed due to differences between the two sides regarding how to reach a permanent end to the war in Gaza."

The sources said, "There is difficulty in going beyond the broad outlines of the framework presented after a disagreement over the continuation of the war at the end of the deal."

But the negotiations, according to the sources, have already achieved progress and reduced differences over the duration of what was described as the “initial ceasefire,” which Hamas initially demanded to continue for several months.

Hamas refuses to move forward with negotiations until there is agreement on the future terms of the permanent ceasefire it demands as part of the deal.

Reuters quoted two Egyptian security officials as saying: “There are attempts to persuade Hamas to agree to a ceasefire for a month, followed by a permanent ceasefire, but the movement is demanding guarantees to implement the second phase of the deal.”

A senior Hamas official told Reuters, "One of the proposals put forward by Israel is to end the war by removing six senior Hamas officials from the Gaza Strip, which means exiling them from there. This proposal has been categorically rejected."

The Hamas official added, "The list presented by Israel included the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, and the commander of the military wing, Muhammad Al-Deif."

Intensive mediation efforts, led by Qatar, Washington and Egypt in the past few weeks, focused on a gradual approach to releasing different categories of kidnapped Israelis, starting with civilians and ending with soldiers, in exchange for a cessation of hostilities, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of more aid into Gaza.

In turn, the American newspaper "Wall Street Journal" reported, citing Egyptian sources, that Hamas informed the mediators that it was open to discussing an agreement to release all kidnapped civilian women and children in exchange for a ceasefire for a significant period.

The Washington Post reported that a proposal is being negotiated that includes the release of all Israeli prisoners in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including those involved in serious attacks and senior leaders of Palestinian factions.

The newspaper reported that the deal to release the abductees being formed will consist of 3 to 4 stages. First, Hamas will release about 10 women and children who were supposed to be released in the previous arrangement. In the second phase, about 40 sick, wounded, elderly and kidnapped people will be released.

In the remaining stage, Hamas will release the remaining prisoners, including soldiers and its corpses, and for every Israeli there will be 3 Palestinian prisoners.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on Swiss expert Hubert Keller’s assertion that coffee causes the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and reminded him that “Gaza is burning.”

Zakharova wrote on Telegram: “I have never seen greater hypocrisy than environmental political hypocrisy, and even human rights are less hypocritical,” in an implicit reference to the West and its officials exploiting human rights and environmental issues to serve their narrow financial interests.

She added: “What coffee are you talking about when Gaza is burning and has become uninhabitable?”, referring to the humanitarian, economic and environmental repercussions of the Gaza war.

Earlier, Keller said at the Davos Economic Forum: “Coffee consumption causes a significant increase in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which poses a threat to the climate and ultimately causes climate change.”

He added: "The coffee we all drink emits 15 to 20 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of coffee."

The New York Times said, citing Israeli officials: Israel wants to demolish buildings on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone.

It added that Israel wants to create a one-kilometer-deep buffer zone along the Gaza border.

The US administration rejects Israel’s plan to create a “buffer zone” in Gaza.

The US administration said today that it does not support Israel’s idea of establishing a “buffer zone” in Gaza and that Gaza’s borders should be preserved.

This was stated by the Strategic Communications Coordinator for the National Security Council at the White House, John Kirby, in his daily press conference.

Kirby stressed that Washington does not support Israel's plan to create a "buffer zone" around Gaza.

He said: “Our view on this issue has not changed. We do not want to see the territory of Gaza reduced in any way, and we do not support that.”

Kirby stated that they spoke with the Israeli side about this issue, whether in open or closed meetings, and they expressed this position clearly in open meetings to the press.

Kirby stated that the United States does not support any change of borders in Gaza.

Israeli media said that the army began demolishing buildings in some places to create a “buffer zone” along the Gaza border.

The countries of the region rejected the idea, and the American administration also expressed its opposition to any potential plan that would lead to reducing the territory of Gaza.

Voice of Palestine Radio said today (Wednesday) that 50 people were killed in Israeli army raids on the western areas of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, according to what was reported by the Arab World News Agency.

Earlier today, the Palestinian Shehab Agency said that the Israeli army carried out a fire belt on Khan Yunis. The agency did not provide further details.

Yesterday (Tuesday), Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee revealed that army forces had completely encircled the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip, expecting the fierce battles there to intensify in the coming hours.

Adraee explained in statements to the Arab World News Agency that “the forces have completed the entire encirclement of the Khan Yunis area, while forces from the commando squad are attacking the heart of the Khan Yunis area, which is a pivotal and important center of gravity for Hamas militants.”

He pointed out that the Israeli forces called on the residents of some neighborhoods of Khan Yunis and its camp to leave for the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis, as it is considered a safe area. Because the army “will expand the scope of the ground operation in Khan Yunis in the coming hours.”

No lasting progress is made when guns and tanks, missiles, and bombs undermine and displace diplomacy. All of humanity suffers. And no peace will be possible without the promise of a safe and secure home for all the people of Palestine.

The virtual obliteration of Gaza and Palestinians by Israeli military forces threatens to provoke a broad regional war. In addition to Israel's present leveling of Gaza to dismantle Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the United States and Britain have all launched missile attacks against targets across much of the Middle East. A ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel's military campaign are the essential keys to avoiding a potential regional conflagration, but the swift conclusion to the war and the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops must also be accompanied by massive humanitarian assistance and movement toward an independent Palestinian state.

Even U.S. president Biden has indicated the need for a two-state solution throughout the course of Israel's bombing and artillery campaign in Gaza. His words have been severely compromised, however, by his steadfast military and political support for Israel's war objectives. Now, with Saudi Arabia offering to normalize relations with Israel if it agrees to a ceasefire and a path toward a Palestinian state, the idea has gained some tentative footing. The economic benefits for Israel in establishing constructive ties with Saudi Arabia could be enormous. Still, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu vehemently opposes a Palestinian state, but it is clear that inflicting so much death and suffering destabilizes the entire region and radicalizes future generations of Palestinians. His stated goals of dismantling Hamas, freeing hostages and achieving future security for Israelis founder on these realities. The pathway to a Palestinian state, even with enormous hurdles to overcome, is absolutely needed and may achieve the first steps toward peaceful relations between the two peoples.

After Israel ceases its ruinous military assault on Gaza and withdraws its troops, Palestinians will need broad international support to achieve their independence from Israel and build a state. The considerable humanitarian assistance already underway will need to be dramatically increased. They will need significant financial investment and technical assistance in the monumental task of reconstruction in Gaza, at least $15 billion according to the Palestine Investment Fund. Just as importantly, the international community will need to hold leaders on both sides accountable for the unprecedented violence of the last four months. Untold crimes against humanity have been committed. In its horrific attack on October 7 of last year Hamas terrorists committed unspeakable crimes. According to Israeli authorities, 1200 were slaughtered, tortured and raped. Another 400 or more were kidnapped and taken into Gaza. Since then, the Israeli military has committed atrocities beyond imagination, relentlessly pounding Gaza with bombs and artillery, killing more than 25,000, two-thirds of them women and children, and leaving 85 percent of the Gaza population displaced and homeless. More than a quarter of the 2 million people residing in Gaza now faces “catastrophic hunger,” according to the World Food Programme.

The Biden administration has come to Israel's defense time and again, repeatedly affirming Israel's right to defend itself. All people have a right to defend themselves against war crimes. The Palestinians, as well as the Israelis, have this right. But that right stops at self-defense. It does not extend to wanton disregard for human life. The Preamble to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) explicitly states that genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression are “most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole...[and]...must not go unpunished.” Hamas' attack on civilians on October 7, 2023 is a war crime at the very least, but it does not justify the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians. South Africa has accused Israel of genocide, and while Israel adamantly denies it, South Africa has presented a persuasive case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), asserting that Israel's military campaign in Gaza violates the 1948 Genocide Convention.

The viability of a Palestinian state is weakened if the leadership on both sides of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict do not appear before an international tribunal. The ICC was established to try individuals for such war crimes. The language each side uses to justify its position starkly illustrates the need for international legal intervention. They have framed their intentions in apocalyptic terms. The international community must condemn such dreadful visions and compel individuals to stand trial for such provocative and dangerous rhetoric. Many nations will oppose this course of action, including the U.S. which does not recognize the authority of the ICC and has withdrawn its support for the ICJ. At the same time, if the international community countenances these nihilistic declarations, the prospects of peaceful co-existence between Israel and a nascent Palestinian state are dim.

On the Israeli side, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invoked dark biblical injunctions in his projection of all-out war against Hamas. At the end of October, in the early days of Israel's invasion, he turned to religious scripture to justify the bombardment of densely populated Gaza. “The Bible says that 'There is a time for peace and a time for war.' This is a time for war.” A few days later, referring to Hamas, Netanyahu said that Israelis “are committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world.” He continued, “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” With the use of 2000-pound bombs in Palestinian neighborhoods in Gaza, his reference to Amalek is nakedly foreboding. In the Old Testament, or in the Jewish Tanakh, God (Elohim in Hebrew) commands the Israelites to “attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all things that belong to them. Do not spare them, put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

Hamas considers Israel a “settler colony,” an occupying force that denies Palestinians' self-determination. Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories (West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) is illegal under international law and the right to Palestinian resistance by armed conflict is protected under international law. But Hamas' leaders assert in the Hamas Doctrine that “[resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right....” International humanitarian law , however, prohibits indiscriminately targeting and killing civilians who are not directly involved in military conflict. Hamas' bombing of crowded public buses in Israeli cities at the end of the 20th century and the massacre that occurred on October 7 are clearly acts in violation of international law. The taking of hostages is another violation of international rules of military engagement.

Hamas' leaders, though, characterized the events of October 7 in glorious acclamations. Political leader Ismail Haniyeh said that “we shall crown it [Oct. 7 massacre], with the grace of God, with a crushing defeat that will expel it [Israel] from our lands...” He went on to say that “This is the goal that is worthy of this battle, worthy of this heroism, worthy of this courage...,” calling it a “grand and blessed incursion” and an “epic presence of men who write history with their blood and their guns.” A year earlier Yahya Sinwar , the reputed mastermind of the October 7 assault, proclaimed in a speech, "We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood. We will come to you with endless rockets, we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers, we will come to you with millions of our people, like the repeating tide.”

Such stark, frightening language and vision from the combatant's leadership give rise to the nihilism that characterizes October 7 and the succeeding four months of war in Gaza. In their own words since October, the leadership of both sides are blinded by their mutual indifference to human suffering. Nevertheless, a ceasefire and movement toward a Palestinian state may be gaining a little more traction. In addition to Saudi Arabia's conditional overture, Israeli, Arab and U.S. officials are now considering further arrangements to free the hostages. Though officials warn that no deal is imminent, diplomatic efforts may achieve progress, especially since some Israeli military commanders reportedly believe that Israel cannot defeat Hamas and free the hostages through continued war. A split in the Israeli Defense Forces, coupled with growing desire among Israelis to free the hostages through diplomacy, could advance an end to the war.

At this juncture in history, it is also critically important to recognize that Palestinians everywhere see the present war in Gaza as another Israeli military campaign to deny their right to exist on their own land in an independent state. From this perspective it seems apparent that Israel is committed to driving Palestinians from their homes and lands, especially when they stand in the way of Israel's expansionist designs. While Hamas has declared that it wishes to “drive Israel into the sea,” Netanyahu recently claimed that “In the future, Israel has to control all of the entire territory west of the river [Jordan] to the sea.” In the context of decades of Israel's illegal annexation and occupation of Palestinian territories, Palestinians see no alternative to continued armed resistance and civilian protest actions.

The continuous oppression of Israel's government is seared into the collective memory of l.5 million Palestinians in 58 refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. (In all, the UN estimates that 5.9 million Palestinian refugees around the world are descendants of scores of thousands who were forced from their ancestral land in Palestine in 1948.) They comprise the largest stateless community in the world. Palestinians still commemorate al-Nakba, “the catastrophe” as they call it, when 750,000 of their people were driven from their homes and towns at the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Some 15,000 Palestinians were killed, some 70 massacres carried out and over 500 villages destroyed. The refugees have never been allowed to return to their land. As a result of 1948 and numerous conflicts since then, Israel exercises military control over the West Bank and Gaza as well as East Jerusalem. It has imposed a suffocating blockade of Gaza for three decades and long encouraged the settlement of Jews in Palestinian territory, both in violation of international law.

From dispossession of land and property to the fragmentation of Palestinian territory (i.e. West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) to the denial of social and economic rights, Israel has prevented Palestinians from forming a state of their own. Daily, ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank must negotiate a reported 565 “movement obstacles” obstructing their free travel, according to a 2023 report of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance. These obstacles included checkpoints, roadblocks, earth mounds, road gates, earth walls, road barriers and trenches. In addition, 450,000 Jewish settlers live in 144 West Bank settlements and another 220,000 in East Jerusalem. Since 1967 when Israel annexed the West Bank (along with Gaza and East Jerusalem), as many as 700,000 Jewish citizens have settled in the West Bank. All are considered illegal under international law since no state is allowed to resettle its own nationals in occupied territories under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The forced migration of more than a million Palestinians since 1948 and Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 continue to engender grave insecurity and profound emotional and psychological distress. Additionally, Palestinians have suffered enormous economic losses over generations. Recognizing these realities, a 2023 United Nations (UN) study delineated the many causes of the pain and losses and called for “Full and commensurate reparations...[to]...Palestinian individuals, corporations and entities for the generational harm caused by Israel’s land and property appropriations, house demolitions, pillage of natural resources, denial of return, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity orchestrated for the colonialist, annexationist aims of an illegal occupant.” Just reparations will restore lost wealth and provide a grassroots economic foundation for building a healthy and peaceful society.

If Israel refuses to accept the creation of a Palestinian state, then the cycle of violence will undoubtedly continue. Its standing in the world and, quite frankly, the standing of the U.S. - its closest ally – diminish daily. And, with the armed factions and powerful nations already drawn into the present conflict, the prodigious bloodshed and destruction unfolding each day that Israel pursues the war in Gaza will continue to escalate, risking a disastrous regional war. Its simmering confrontation with Iran, the nation in the region it fears most, will spiral downward more rapidly. As difficult as it may be for Israelis, if they genuinely seek security they must acknowledge the glaringly apparent inequities and disparities endured by Palestinian in the occupied territories. Only then will they have a realistic opportunity to actually secure their society and state, to prosper next to Arab nations who no longer need to placate their many citizens who support Palestinian self-determination.. As for the Palestinians themselves, they will have finally achieved the self-governing state for which they have sacrificed so much. Under these fresh circumstances, negotiations between and among states offers a real chance to dampen further hostilities and move toward greater regional stability.

No lasting progress is made when guns and tanks, missiles, and bombs undermine and displace diplomacy. All of humanity suffers. A genuinely independent and economically healthy Palestinian state will bring new possibilities of negotiation and diplomacy between Israelis and Palestinians. It is a difficult path and there will be numerous obstacles to overcome and setbacks to be endured. But it is a just and constructive alternative to endless war and thousands more dead and suffering, displaced, homeless and hungry.

Big wars are the key to big transformations. What is happening in the Gaza Strip and other fronts outside it is, in one way or another, an example of a major war, between a regional state supported by the major power in the international system and many allies, facing armed organizations that believe in the absolute right to resist the occupation. Despite the power difference between the parties to the conflict equation, the war lasted for about 110 continuous days, making it a major war that must lead to major changes. The dilemma lies in determining the direction of these changes, and to what extent they will lead to a new Middle East in its interactions and paths.

Throughout the days of war and Israeli aggression, and despite the pressures coming from different directions for a ceasefire, and the opportunity to address the problems of exchanging prisoners and starting a new phase in Gaza in terms of securing the life requirements of the people, the nature of the new administration and reconstruction, and the political process that might follow between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the United States still believes that the time has not yet come for a complete ceasefire, but for various reasons, including what is internal affecting the course of the US presidential elections, and what is international and regional, especially the manifestations of the expansion of the conflict that portend uncalculated explosions, it has begun to talk about a comprehensive process that leads to major changes, combining the two-state solution as required by the Arabs, with the security of the Hebrew state on the one hand and its integration into the Arab and Middle Eastern surroundings through a specific normalization methodology on the other hand.

The phone conversation between President Biden and the Israeli Prime Minister four days ago, which the US President summarized in a significant sentence stating that the two-state solution in the presence of Netanyahu is not impossible, adding that there are types of countries that do not have armies, and before Blinken’s speech in “Davos” about the importance of the two-state solution to Israel's security, which suggests, although it is not entirely reliable, that the White House succeeded in changing the conviction of the Israeli Prime Minister, who rejected that idea in principle, by accepting a two-state solution, one of which has all the elements of military power, and the other has none of it, and thus is achieved. The promised security of Israel, which is taking root more and more according to the relatively new American indicators, through its integration regionally through a major process of normalization with the Arab countries, and it does not necessarily include everyone, but rather Arab symbols with great and influential political and moral weight are sufficient, opening the door to an expanded process for the reconstruction of Gaza. With Arab and European participation, without responsibility for those who caused the destruction and sabotage of the Strip and the tragedy of its people.

What is certain here is that President Biden faces major problems, especially the trends of the angry young university generations, which daily expose Israeli violations and delve into the tragedy of the people of Gaza via social media, as well as within his Democratic Party that rejects the policy of unconditional support for Israel. Both of these reasons prompted President Biden to focus on On a new, old equation, which includes Israel offering some concessions regarding the Palestinian state, in exchange for integration into the region. And then contain the repercussions of any decisions that may be issued by the International Court of Justice against the State of Israel, or by the International Criminal Court in the future against the Israeli war leaders.

The White House’s transformations came gradually. It began with pressure to change Israeli military “tactics” that lead to the killing of civilians with extreme indiscrimination. It led to thinking about getting out of the Gaza crisis by achieving goals beyond simply eliminating “Hamas” and its like, and building a geo-political situation different from what was previously. It has the region before the war, rebuilds new equations that achieve Israel's security, and contains the reasons for the regional reluctance, even partially, to accept it as a state like others in the region.

The biggest American bet is unrestricted normalization, even if it is gradual and based on a very unstable political hypothesis, which is that the prize for normalization will besiege the Israeli right, and will push symbols of moderation to prominence again. Which weakens any opposition to the two-state solution. The main weakness here lies in the fact that Israeli society has become right-wing to the core, extremely inclined to violence against everything Palestinian, laden with illusions of invincible power, unable to comprehend the humanitarian catastrophe that the Gaza Strip has reached, and immersed in a state of schizophrenia between possessing mighty military power that did not deter an armed resistance movement, limited in number and armament, and did not fall after all the attacks directed at it, imbued with an unprecedented desire for unlimited revenge to overcome the state of inability to achieve the declared goals. In addition to the complete absence of any rational, influential voice calling for a review of the causes of incapacity despite the power, and often, if it exists, only a limited handful will be found who might respond to it and appreciate what it calls for.

This unprecedented state of tendency towards violence among elites and society could not have reached this degree of collective illness except as a result of the American and European positions, politically, propaganda and media, and their support for what was described as Israel’s right to self-defense, and giving it a document of acquittal in advance of all human violations that occur in the Gaza Strip. In particular, the complete disregard for all aspects of human rights, the unjustified defense of the continuation of aggression and the rejection of a ceasefire, under the pretext that it may only benefit Hamas, and ignoring the other humanitarian dimensions of the Palestinian people, are all factors that contributed to the escalation in the degree of violence and revenge in Israeli behavior in Gaza. And in the West Bank together. Let us not forget the Israeli educational curricula, which breed racism and rejection of the Palestinian other in the hearts of Israelis since childhood, and which the West completely ignores.

The state of Israeli society is in dire need of something resembling a behavioral and moral revolution, a reversal of the obsession with unchecked revenge, to a state of rationality and political rationality that believes that the right to security is for all parties, with the Palestinians at the forefront, and that in turn needs time and effort if the United States does not grant it. It has the right to be given attention according to the strategy of changing national behavior, such as the one followed in the cases of Germany and Japan after World War II. It is impossible to see the White House’s ambition for a Palestinian state alongside the Hebrew entity present before the eyes.
In agreement with Asharq Al-Awsat

Three sources told Reuters on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, that Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had largely agreed in principle to the possibility of exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners during a month-long truce, and the sources stated that the framework plan was being delayed. It was proposed due to differences between the two sides regarding how to reach a permanent end to the war in Gaza.

Intensive mediation efforts, led by Qatar, Washington and Egypt in the past few weeks, have focused on a gradual approach to releasing different categories of Israeli detainees, from civilians to soldiers, in exchange for a cessation of hostilities, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of more aid into Gaza.

This comes a few days after a Hebrew channel published, on Monday evening, that Israel is preparing a new deal that includes the release of its detainees in Gaza and a temporary cessation of fighting without committing to ending the war in the Palestinian Strip.

The private Channel 13 reported that Tel Aviv “has finished formulating the principles of a deal consisting of 3 to 4 stages, which includes changing the deployment of Israeli army forces in the Gaza Strip and withdrawing from some areas without ending the war.”

According to the channel, the deal being prepared also includes “Israel’s agreement to release a large number of Palestinian prisoners and a long-term ceasefire,” without further clarification.

According to the same source, the crystallized deal includes Hamas releasing its remaining women and elderly men, although it is not clear whether they will be released in one lump sum.

The channel said, "In the second phase, the youngest detainees and youth will be released, while the third phase includes the release of soldiers and bodies held by Hamas."

The channel quoted Israeli sources - which it did not name - that Tel Aviv "received during the past few days messages from mediators indicating that Hamas seemed more flexible regarding its demand that the end of the war be part of a possible deal."

Netanyahu talks about a prisoner exchange deal

At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that there is an "Israeli initiative" to exchange detainees in the Gaza Strip for Palestinian prisoners, without revealing its details.

This came during Netanyahu's meeting with representatives of the families of Israeli detainees in Gaza, denying that there was an initiative presented by the Hamas movement in this regard, according to a statement issued by Netanyahu's office.

The statement, a copy of which was obtained by Anatolia, stated that Netanyahu "told the families of the kidnapped Israelis held by Hamas during his meeting with them: There is no real proposal by Hamas. This is not true."

He added: "I say this as clearly as I can, because there are many untrue things that are tormenting you. On the contrary, there is an initiative on our part and I will not divulge its details."

In recent days, no Israeli official has ever announced the existence of an “Israeli prisoner exchange initiative,” but the media reported disagreements within the government regarding ways to return detainees from Gaza, and Netanyahu’s rejection of proposals presented by various parties, due to his adherence to not a ceasefire, which is the condition. The main leader of the Hamas movement.

A sit-in by the families of prisoners

On Sunday, the families of the prisoners set up tents near the Prime Minister’s house in West Jerusalem to demand that the government reach a deal to return the prisoners from the Gaza Strip.

It is worth noting that, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israeli military points and settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, during which about 1,200 Israelis were killed, about 5,431 were injured, and the movement captured at least 239.

Hamas exchanged 105 civilians detained by it, including 81 Israelis, 23 Thai citizens, and one Filipino, during a temporary humanitarian truce that lasted 7 days and ended in early December 2023, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons (71 female prisoners and 169 children). ).

Israel estimates that there are about “136 hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip,” according to identical media reports and statements by Israeli officials.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stated that the number of casualties in Gaza had reached a level that required a ceasefire.

This came in response to questions from students at an event held at the London School of Economics and Political Science on Tuesday.

He added: "In the past 20 years, now is the best time to work for a two-state solution. Now let us use this solution. Please let us stop the violence."

He added: "In such conflicts, you are pulled to one side or another. I do not support one side. The side I support is human life."

He continued: "In Gaza, if this number of people die, and if 10,000 children die, which is the equivalent of hundreds of children every day, within 100 days, then this situation requires a ceasefire, and this is Belgium's position."

De Croo stated that thanks to the humanitarian truce to the conflict last November, many prisoners were released, and humanitarian aid entered Gaza.

“The violence must stop, humanitarian aid must enter, and the prisoners must be released,” he said.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced in a statement that 210 Palestinians were killed and 386 others were injured as a result of the Israeli bombing of the Strip during the past 24 hours.

It pointed out that the number of Palestinian killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Strip last October has risen to 25,700, in addition to 63,740 injured.

On the 110th day of the Israeli aggression against Gaza, Israel continues intense bombardment on various areas in the Gaza Strip, including Khan Yunis, which is being completely wiped out, while several countries called for an end to the aggression against Gaza and an end to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said that the Israeli occupation has completely isolated Nasser Medical Complex, and that medical teams are unable to transfer serious cases from the complex to the Jordanian field hospital next to it as a result of the continuous bombing.

Dozens of displaced people's tents were flooded due to the depression hitting the Gaza Strip, which led to double the suffering, in addition to displacement under the weight of continuous bombing and lack of water and food.

On the other hand, Hebrew media revealed that Tel Aviv presented a proposal to stop the fighting for two months in Gaza in exchange for the release of all detainees. However, the resistance announced its rejection of the proposal and confirmed that it had repeatedly stipulated that the aggression be completely halted before talking about an exchange deal.

For his part, the United Nations rapporteur on housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, said that the systematic destruction of Palestinian homes on the Gaza border could constitute a war crime.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered that Qatar's mediation role in the exchange deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was problematic.

Channel 12 reported - based on a leaked recording of Netanyahu meeting with the families of prisoners detained in Gaza - that Qatar is more problematic than the United Nations and the Red Cross.

He added that he was disappointed that Washington was not putting more pressure on Doha, and that it had extended its presence at the military base in Qatar.

Netanyahu indicated that he did not thank Qatar publicly because it did not exert more pressure on the Hamas movement, which Doha is believed to be financing.

Haaretz newspaper reported from informed sources that Netanyahu informed the families of the prisoners that Israel is ready to make concessions for the sake of a new deal, and an Israeli channel published general principles for the deal that do not include an end to the war, which is one of Hamas’ conditions.

Israeli media confirmed that the negotiations are continuing and that Israel has not received any response from Hamas through mediators, at a time when US envoy Brett McGurk is touring the region, including Egypt and Qatar, to hold “serious” talks regarding reaching an agreement to release the prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza and a humanitarian truce, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.

Qatar - along with Egypt and the United States - played a role in reaching a truce between Hamas and Israel last November, and the two sides exchanged the release of numbers of prisoners.

Source: Israeli press

On Wednesday, the Israeli occupation army blew up the walls of the family home of Palestinian detainee Wael Shehadeh, south of the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

According to local sources, an army engineering unit blew up Shehadeh's house in the town of Urif.

According to other local sources, confrontations broke out between dozens of Palestinians and the Israeli army in the town, in which the latter used live and metal bullets and tear gas bombs, while protesters threw stones at the forces.

Dozens of Israeli military vehicles stormed the town of Orif early on Wednesday.

The Israeli army usually blows up and demolishes the homes of Palestinians, accusing them of carrying out "operations and killing Israelis."

Prisoner Basil Shehadeh has been detained since June 21, 2023, and is accused of assisting the perpetrators of the “Eli” settlement operation south of Nablus, which resulted in the killing of 4 settlers at that time.

The American Wall Street Journal, citing Egyptian sources: Hamas informed the mediators that it is open to discussing an agreement to release all kidnapped civilian women and children in exchange for a ceasefire for a long period. 19 Israeli women and two children are still in Hamas captivity. This is an important shift in Hamas’ position. Which was opposed to any negotiations before the ceasefire, according to the newspaper.

The American newspaper, citing the same sources, said: Despite the positivity in Hamas’ position, the agreement is still far from reach and the talks could still collapse.

The American Washington Post newspaper: A proposal is being negotiated that includes the release of all Israeli prisoners in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including those involved in serious attacks and senior leaders of Palestinian organizations.

The process will be in several stages, the first of which will be the release of 10 women and children who were supposed to be released by Hamas in the first deal. In the second stage, about 40 prisoners will be released, including the sick, wounded, and the elderly, along with soldiers. In the remaining stage, Hamas will release the rest. Of the prisoners, including soldiers and its corpses. For every Israeli, there will be 3 Palestinian prisoners.

Reuters, citing several sources: An agreement has been reached in principle, according to which an agreement will be reached to exchange prisoners during a ceasefire period that will last for one month.

The sources said that there is difficulty in going beyond the broad outlines of the framework presented after a dispute over the continuation of the war at the end of the deal... but the negotiations have already achieved progress and reduced differences regarding the duration of what was described as the “initial ceasefire,” which Hamas initially demanded to continue for several months, but the movement It refuses to move forward until there is agreement on the future terms of the permanent ceasefire it demands as part of the deal.

Reuters quoted two Egyptian security officials as saying: There are attempts to persuade Hamas to agree to a ceasefire for a month followed by a permanent ceasefire, but the movement is demanding guarantees to implement the second phase of the deal.

A Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations said: Hamas is demanding a “comprehensive deal” in which there would also be an agreement on a permanent ceasefire before the release of the kidnapped people, while Israel is interested in interim negotiations.

A senior Hamas official told Reuters that one of the proposals put forward by Israel was to end the war by “removing” six senior Hamas officials from the Strip, which would mean exiling them from there. This proposal was categorically rejected.

He added: The list presented by Israel included the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, and the commander of the military wing, Muhammad Al-Deif.

Five sources said that Israel is not ready to discuss any scenario for ending the war that does not include dissolving Hamas.

During more than 100 days since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, US President Joe Biden sought to help Israel win its war on Gaza and prevent the conflict from turning into a regional war with Iran and its proxies. This has become more difficult as the Iranian “axis of resistance,” Israel, and America launch more serious strikes on each other, including assassinations.

A report by the British magazine The Economist stated that Iran’s allies in Iraq and Syria have launched about 140 missile and drone attacks against American forces since the beginning of the Gaza war, and perhaps the most violent of them came on January 20, with the launch of a barrage of “multiple ballistic missiles and missiles” at the Al-Assad base west of the country. Iraq, according to US Central Command.

The magazine added that the United States launched its seventh raid in Yemen “against a different Iranian ally,” the Houthi group, which controls a large part of the country, in an attempt to stop the missiles it launches at ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Biden himself admits that American strikes will not stop the Houthis. However, the Washington Post reports that his administration is formulating plans for a “sustained military campaign” in Yemen despite the concerns of some officials.

The magazine continued, saying that Hezbollah in Lebanon, on the other hand, was regularly exchanging fire with Israeli forces. He expressed his support for Hamas, but did not involve himself in a war against Israel, according to the magazine, as the Biden administration helped dissuade Israel from launching a pre-emptive attack on Hezbollah immediately after the October 7 attacks, but Israel threatens to take action in Lebanon if diplomacy fails to convince Hezbollah to cease fire and move away from the border area.

The British magazine believes that America and Iran are playing a balancing role fraught with risks. Iran has helped its allies in the “Axis of Resistance” launch attacks aimed at weakening Israel, distracting America, and discrediting the Arab countries that have signed peace agreements or normalized their relations (or are seeking to do so) with Israel. For its part, America has engaged in “limited retaliatory operations,” and both have avoided a direct clash, but this balance may not hold.

The Economist hinted that Israel is waging a non-secret war against Iran and its allies, in addition to public confrontations with Hamas and Hezbollah.

Strategic patience

However, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iranian forces to exercise "strategic patience", while Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group says the Iranian regime now feels it needs to "restore deterrence" and has taken matters into its own hands.

The British magazine reported that, during the past week, Iran fired missiles at alleged “terrorist” targets in Syria and Pakistan, and at “an alleged Israeli spy base in Iraqi Kurdistan.” The attack on Pakistan led to a retaliatory missile strike against Iran, and it appears that both countries Now step back from the brink.

Fayez says, "The Iranians are still risk averse; they want to change the perception that they are on the defensive. But at the same time, there is a perception that Israel has set a trap for them, either to justify extending the war or to drag the United States into it."

According to the magazine, Biden was cautious, as he did not want to be drawn into a war in the Middle East at a time when America was already exhausted due to supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, and was trying to prevent another war against China because of Taiwan. Moreover, Biden is seeking re-election this year.

In Iraq and Syria, US forces respond much less frequently to the attacks they are exposed to. Likewise in Yemen, Washington initially limited its response to destroying missiles and drones that threatened Israel or passing ships.

The magazine quoted Aaron David Miller, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying, “The American administration knows that it has a problem that has no solution, and it can only try to manage it.”

She noted that Biden’s best hope is that Israel will soon win, or at least end its war in Gaza, thus reducing anger throughout the region, “but Israel has not succeeded in suppressing Hamas and has not recovered its hostages, and has shown little sign of its willingness to stop.” The number of Palestinian deaths has exceeded 25,000.”

The magazine concluded its report by saying that while Biden is struggling to control the scene in the Middle East, Miller says that he may be away from an “unfortunate accident or terrorist attack” that ignites a regional war. He added: "If this continues, and one of these strikes actually ends with the killing of a large number of Americans, the administration will have no choice but to strike the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."

Source: The Economist + Al Jazeera

By David Ignatius

Israel and Hamas are groping toward a resumption of negotiations to trade Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, accompanied by an extended pause in fighting, as well as a sharp increase in aid for desperate civilians in Gaza.

These deadlocked issues are the blood knot in this war. For a traumatized Israel, release of the hostages is a paramount aim. For a Palestinian population on the edge of famine and pandemic disease, a new cease-fire is an existential requirement. For Hamas leaders trapped underground, the deal offers the possibility of political survival.

There isn’t yet a breakthrough. But recent progress in framing issues is the first opening since December in an impasse that has turned Gaza into a nightmare of death and disease. If the indirect negotiations resume — with mediation from Qatar and Egypt aided by the United States — it could open a path toward a major de-escalation of the war.

The move to resume negotiations was outlined this week by knowledgeable Israeli and U.S. sources, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issues. Like every other aspect of the Gaza conflict, the bargaining is bounded by deep mistrust and internal political divisions. But officials who were bleak about progress a week ago are more hopeful now.

The main obstacle to resuming the indirect talks is Hamas’s demand for a long-term cease-fire. Israel refuses to grant that, but its negotiators are ready to accept a pause that would last weeks and could perhaps be extended as conditions evolve. Israel is pressing Egyptian and Qatari mediators to persuade Hamas to accept the negotiating framework, so bargaining over the details of swapping hostages and prisoners can begin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thunderously rejected Hamas’s demand for a permanent cease-fire on Sunday. “I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,” Netanyahu said. But he faces growing domestic pressure to free the estimated 136 hostages who remain in Hamas control, so he badly needs a release plan.

Negotiators envision several stages in the hostage-release process. First, Hamas would free about 10 women and children who were supposed to be released under a previous agreement that collapsed last month. In a second “humanitarian” phase, Hamas would free about 40 sick, injured and elderly hostages along with female Israeli soldiers. In the remaining group of roughly 86, Hamas would hand over male hostages, including soldiers, and finally the bodies of those who died during the Oct. 7 attack or in subsequent months of captivity.

Each departure of Israeli hostages from Gaza would be accompanied by release of Palestinian prisoners. Sources say the ratio would probably be more than three Palestinians for every Israeli. Among the hundreds of Palestinians to be freed would be some whom Israelis view as terrorists and killers, which would make this a bitter bargain.

The final swap lists wouldn’t be agreed on until shortly before release, but one Palestinian detainee who might be freed is Marwan Barghouti, who led the first and second intifadas. Barghouti is probably the most popular political leader in the West Bank and Gaza and potentially could unite Palestinians in a push toward statehood.

The renewed swap agreement would be accompanied by a lengthy cease-fire. This would allow humanitarian assistance that’s desperately needed in Gaza but blocked by continuing violence and Israeli intransigence. For example, a U.N. team that was supposed to enter northern Gaza 10 days ago to assess water, housing, food and sanitation needs has been blocked by continued skirmishing between Israeli forces and remnants of Hamas.

Such a pause in fighting could open new routes for aid, including ships unloaded at floating docks offshore. Doctors and medicines are urgently needed as infectious disease spreads in the crowded, dirty camps into which Palestinian refugees have been driven. Gazans are experiencing “unspeakable suffering,” wrote Leonard Rubenstein and J. Stephen Morrison, two prominent public health specialists, in a recent report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

If negotiators can address the two most anguishing issues — Israel’s Oct. 7 hostages and the suffering of Palestinian civilians — that might open the way to progress on other problems that now seem irreconcilable. Netanyahu insists he won’t allow a Palestinian state with full sovereignty, seemingly blocking the outcome the United States favors and Saudi Arabia demands. But diplomacy is about bridging such gaps.

State Department officials are exploring sovereignty models that might satisfy both sides, such as the “compacts of free association” that allowed statehood for Pacific island nations such as Micronesia and Palau, with restrictions on defense and other sensitive issues. U.S. officials stress to their Israeli counterparts that the best guarantee for long-term security is a regional structure of cooperation that unites Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states against Iran and its proxies — but the Arabs demand that, as part of the deal, Israel accept a Palestinian state.

Israel needs this cease-fire and prisoner swap as badly as Hamas does. The endgame of the tunnel war could go on for many months. But aboveground, Gaza is becoming a version of warlord-dominated Somalia. Israel and Hamas need to start moving toward de-escalation of this conflict now, while they still have a chance.