The Gaza Crisis: Negotiating a Possible End to Israel’s War in the Baluchi-Palestinian Strip, Israeli-Israeli Relations
Israel’s siege has trapped the population in the Gaza Strip, unlike wars where refugees can find countries to flee to.
Since the war in Gaza began, over 29,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands of people have been wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Egypt, one of the few countries that talks to both sides in the current war, is a key mediator between Israel and Hamas and is working to broker an end to Israel’s war in Gaza. These efforts have taken on added urgency as Israel threatens to mount a major offensive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, which sits on the border.
The talks are centered on a cease-fire that could be extended, according to Egyptian officials. The Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.
The current crisis is linked to the painful history of Israel and Palestine. The first major Israeli-Palestinian war in 1948-49 resulted in the displacement of 2.2 million people in Gaza, most of them descendants.
The possibility of another Nakba, or catastrophe, as Palestinians refer to their displacement more than 70 years ago, makes many today determined to stay put in Gaza.
At the same time, Egypt doesn’t want to be dragged into the war if militants infiltrate an open border, prompting Israeli attacks and Egyptian counterattacks.
Israel’s government says there is no intent to do so. The members of the right-wing coalition in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government want Palestinians to be forced out. Some have said that they would like to rebuild Jewish settlements in Gaza.
I have never heard people say, ‘We would like to go to Egypt.’ They want to be in a place that doesn’t get bombarded. She tells NPR that they can both sleep and wake up the next day. “Some people have even told me, ‘I want to go back to my home. And even if it’s destroyed, I’ll put my tent there and it’ll be safer. At least I will die at my home.’”
She says she saw some families packing mattresses and whatever else they could carry and heading to the coast — literally setting up tents on the beach — in anticipation of a major Israeli military push into Rafah. While in Rafah, she survived intense Israeli air and naval bombardment in an operation that freed two Israeli hostages but killed dozens of Palestinian civilians, including many children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Hamas has more than 130 hostages, which they were seized in the attacks on Israel.
“What we have indicated is that the displacement [of Palestinians] into our territory is a red line,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry recently told the PBS Newshour. We appreciate the fact that all those who have indicated that they refuse displacement into Egyptian territory have done so.
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, Israel’s war cabinet reviewed plans for the military operation and evacuation of civilians in places where fighting is taking place, possibly including Rafah.
In a Saturday post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Netanyahu said he’s also meeting with his cabinet this week to “approve the operational plans for action in Rafah, including the evacuation of the civilian population from there.”
A clear plan for relocating the more than 1 million people in Egypt first was warned by President Joe Biden in a message to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
A cement-walled perimeter is being built near the Egyptian-Israeli border in the event of an attack, which will hold up to 150,000 people, according to Egyptian officials.
Egypt has made limited exceptions to people trying to flee Gaza throughout the war. Some war-wounded have been allowed to get treatment in Egypt with the aid of Israel. Palestinians with second passports and those with connections to Western entities have also been allowed to leave Gaza, as have those who’ve been able to raise thousands of dollars for special visas.
When Syria descended into civil war in 2011, millions fled to neighboring countries. They included an estimated 120,000 Palestinians, who were already refugees in Syria before they sought shelter elsewhere, according to the U.N. agency that handles Palestinian refugees.
Egypt already hosts around 9 million refugees from the region, though it does not have formal refugee camps. Large cities such as Cairo have long-term residents like the refugees. The camps for Palestinian refugees in other Arab countries are very different.
Netanyahu says Israeli operation in Rafah will happen: Israeli hamas gaza cease-fire and netanyahu muhammad shtayyeh
Speaking Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Sullivan said that representatives from Israel, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, who met in Paris last week, had come to “an understanding among the four of them about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for temporary cease-fire would look like.”
The first cease-fire took place on October 7th, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took hundreds of hostages in southern Israel. Israel’s military response has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Netanyahu wrote that a combination of military pressure and firm negotiations will be needed in order to free hostages, eliminate Hamas and achieve all the objectives of the war.
“If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway,” said the prime minister about military action in Rafah.
“If Hamas doesn’t free the hostages by the start of the Holy month of Ramadan, then there will be fighting everywhere, including the Rafah area,” said a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet.
According to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, 500 truckloads of aid are needed to meet the basic needs of Palestinians. Less than half of that amount has been deposited. The most that has ever gotten in is 300 trucks, according to U.N. figures. The World Food Program said last week that it was suspending aid distribution in northern Gaza due to security issues.
One in six children under the age of 2 in Gaza are very thin, according to the UN.
Israel Has a Hamas-Netanyahu: Israeli Operation in Rafah Happens With or Without a Truncation
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced the resignation of his government on Monday. The new technocratic government will be in charge of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority, which has governed parts of the occupied West Bank since the 1990s, hasn’t had control over the Gaza Strip since Hamas defeated rival Palestinian faction Fatah for control of the Gaza Strip in fighting in 2007.
The leader of the Palestinian Authority is unpopular among Palestinians, since they don’t like them for their corruption.
Even if Abbas accepts the resignation of Shtayyeh’s government, the matter of creating a new one, bringing various factions together, will be complex. But forming a new technocratic government to run Gaza — one not controlled by Hamas — is what the U.S. and Israel want.
Pressure is growing on Netanyahu and his government to bring the hostages back. There have been steady anti-government demonstrations in Israel — with protesters including relatives of hostages — since the start of the war. There was a crowd of thousands in Tel Aviv.
Police clashed with demonstrators, deployed water cannons and officers on horse back to disperse the crowd. At lease 18 people were arrested, according to the Associated Press. Protests were also held outside of Jerusalem.
Source: With or without a cease-fire, Netanyahu says Israeli operation in Rafah will happen
The “Day After Hamas” Plan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu During the Second Reionization Session of the Palestinian Authority
Netanyahu on Friday released what he called a “Day After Hamas” plan, which included an Israeli military presences in Gaza for an indefinite period of time, and a buffer zone inside Gaza along the fence separating the enclave from Israel.