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SvennoJ on 06 May 2024
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A knife-edge situation

There’s a great deal of caution that you’re hearing.

I was speaking to senior diplomats and ambassadors in New York a few days ago, and they were all telling me this was going to come to the moment we are at now, which is a knife-edge situation of either a Rafah offensive or a deal.

And clearly, the ball is now very much in the Israeli court.

I can tell you right now in New York, the site of the UN headquarters, the UN Security Council started meeting again. They’re talking about another resolution, that there should be no displacement of Palestinians and no Rafah offensive.

Those are now also the positions of the US ,as well. This puts a great deal of pressure on the Netanyahu government at this stage.

Limited Rafah operation could be ‘US gift to Netanyahu’

For the negotiations to work, it would be extremely important to get assurances of implementation from the US, according to Tamer Qarmout, an assistant professor of public policy at Doha Institute of Graduate Studies.

“If the Americans have blessed this new version of the deal, then it has a high chance to succeed,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The Americans are opposing a major military operation in Rafah, including reoccupying Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, but I’m not sure if they are rejecting a limited military operation. Maybe this could be their gift to Netanyahu.”

This, the analyst said, could allow Israel to go into Rafah and claim its victory, and enable Netanyahu to assuage his far-right coalition.

“But when you look at the real world, first of all there is the suffering and the despair of people in Gaza, and the 1.5 million people in Rafah who don’t know what’s going to happen to them. And then there are the millions of people all over the world who are screaming and crying and want to see an end to this.”


Al-Quds Brigades fires rockets towards Israel

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it launched rockets from Gaza towards southern Israel in response to Israeli air strikes on the Strip.

“We have targeted Sderot, Nir Am, and settlements in the Gaza envelope with rocket barrages,” the al-Quds Brigades said in a statement, referring to a zone of southern Israel close to Gaza.

The Israeli army said sirens sounded in communities near the besieged and bombarded territory.