Families of Israeli captives held in Gaza have issued a statement denouncing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of ceasefire talks.
“The full and direct responsibility for the fate of the negotiations is on the Prime Minister,” they stressed.
They noted in the statement that Netanyahu’s incessant attempts to blame the negotiation teams, the mediators, the press, the hostages’ families and even the hostages themselves “throw sand in the eyes of the public and the entire world.”
“The Prime Minister is the authority and therefore he is responsible,” they insisted.
The families added that if Netanyahu is so successful at conducting negotiations, “as he describes himself to be, he should fly out himself and act to return the hostages that were abandoned on his watch and for ten months since.”
In an editorial that came as the families of Israeli captives criticised Netanyahu, Aluf Benn said that the Israeli prime minister is “torpedoing” ceasefire negotiations because he ultimately wants a “prolonged occupation of the Gaza Strip.”
The Editor for an Israeli newspaper said, “Caravan after caravan, outpost after outpost” Netanyahu is planning a “creeping occupation” of Gaza.
Benn added that the Israeli prime minister’s recent insistence on maintaining Israeli control of “defense and strategic assets”, such as the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors illustrates his intentions.
Separately, Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow at the Chatham House, asserted that freeing Israeli captives is not Netanyahu’s top priority.
He said that Netanyahu has not signed a ceasefire deal with Hamas because his far-right coalition opposes an end to the war on Gaza.
“We are more than 10 months into this war, and we know that some of the hostages, including those who were killed and brought back to Israel yesterday, were alive as late as March,” Mekelberg said.
He added that if freeing the captives was Netanyahu’s top priority, “he probably would have reached a ceasefire deal some time ago.”
He went on to note that some of Netanyahu’s coalition partners have threatened to collapse the government, and “this is probably [Netanyahu’s] biggest fear – to lose his coalition and lose the premiership.”
Also, Mekelberg stated that Netanyahu’s standing in Israeli opinion polls has improved as tensions have risen in the region.
He opined that this is because the more threats that come “from Iran and from Hezbollah, [Netanyahu] can again portray himself as the one that stands against these threats.”
Netanyahu Making Most Of U.S Election Season
Meanwhile, Hussein Haridi, a former Egyptian assistant Foreign Minister, opined that Netanyahu realizes that the US is in the midst of presidential elections and “is making the most of it to score gains with his ruling coalition.”
“As a matter of fact, the statements that come out, either of his office or the statements he makes, are for these far-right extremists … in his ruling coalition,” Haridi said.
According to Haridi, the American administration would keep pushing for a ceasefire deal because of two reasons.
The first reason, he said, was that the Biden administration and Kamala Harris need a ceasefire agreement in place in Gaza “in order to sell it to the American public opinion.”
He added that the second reason why the US needs a ceasefire deal to be agreed upon is due to a fear that if it’s not approved, it could “open the door for the retaliation (on Israel from) Iran and Hezbollah.”
Haridi said that it’s in the interest of everyone to secure a ceasefire deal as Israel is “losing economically (and) financially” and the Palestinians are “suffering.”
He noted that “in principle,” all parties are in agreement on the ceasefire deal, but “differences in opinion remain.”
“There are some disagreements definitely between the Israelis and Hamas’s people, but we believe these differences are reachable,” Haridi stated.
“So we are waiting for the next 48 hours to see whether the technical teams negotiating the details would succeed in bringing to fruition and bringing to the finish line this agreement.”
Hussein Haridi
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