Smotrich rails against renewed Gaza ceasefire effort
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has taken to X to voice his disapproval of a new push to stop the war in the Gaza Strip, announced yesterday by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US.
“The time has not come for a dangerous trap in which the ‘intermediaries’ dictate a ‘formula’ to us and impose a surrender agreement on us that will drain the blood we shed in the most just war we are waging,” he wrote in a long post.
He also said that reaching a yet-hypothetical deal with Hamas would “leave Hezbollah on the fences of the residents of the north,” and “play down Israel’s deterrence and its image in the Middle East [and] will present it as a weak patron state”.
Smotrich called on PM Netanyahu not to move “an inch” from his red lines in negotiations, which reportedly were the main sticking point preventing a deal from being reached the last time negotiations were being conducted in mid-July.
We must quickly reach captive deal: Israeli defence minister
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has stressed the need to quickly reach a deal to bring home Israeli captives from Gaza.
Gallant made the remarks during talks with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, who agreed on the matter’s “urgency”, according to a statement by the Israeli military.
Israel has agreed to send a negotiating team to Doha or Cairo next week for another round of ceasefire talks. However, there are doubts that there is a big enough opening for Israel and Hamas to soon conclude a deal with four or five issues still to be worked out, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi reports.
42% still prefer Netanyahu's genocide vs Gantz's push for a ceasefire.
Netanyahu, Likud gain popularity at home, poll shows
A poll indicates that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is regaining popularity over his rival Benny Gantz.
According to a poll by Lazar Research cited by Israeli newspaper Maariv, 42 percent of respondents said Netanyahu is better suited to be prime minister, compared with 40 percent who picked Gantz.
If elections were held today, Netanyahu’s Likud party would score the most seats in parliament, with 22, while Gantz’s National Unity would finish second with 20, the poll showed.
Netanyahu has faced fierce criticism during the war on Gaza for failing to secure a captive release deal and previous polling has shown him and his party trailing in popularity to Gantz.
Not that Gantz would be much better anyway, at least he wants the hostages out. It's like Biden-Trump in reverse.
