Netanyahu waiting for ‘green light’ from Trump to resume Gaza war
Sami al-Arian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, has told Al Jazeera that Israel has not been “fulfilling” its part of the ceasefire deal, which is to allow 600 aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip daily.
“They have been only allowing fewer than 100 [trucks] a day, with the exception that once Hamas threatened that it will withhold the new round [of the captive-prisoner exchange], they started accelerating these releases [of aid trucks]; yesterday, there were over 800 trucks, and today, also there are more than 600,” he said.
He said he believes Netanyahu did not want to start negotiations for phase two of the ceasefire deal until he got a “green light from Trump … allowing him to resume the war whenever he thinks he could”.
“I don’t think Trump allowed him to do that; therefore, the negotiations are now in earnest,” al-Arian noted.
“My prediction is that Trump does not want a war,” he said.
Trucks carrying aid move in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 13
Israeli military establishment ‘fatigued’, does not want to resume Gaza war
Menachem Klein, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, has told Al Jazeera that there had been “a struggle” in Israel over whether to resume the war or the negotiations.
The army was uninterested in resuming the war, and the families of the captives demanded a deal, but Netanyahu was interested in resuming the war and cancelling the deal, he said.
Klein said the army is fatigued and needs to reorganise itself, including replacing the chief of staff, and this cannot be done while a war is ongoing.
He added that Israeli society as a whole also “needs a break”, with some Israelis close to refusing to serve if the war resumes and the military calls them up.
“My reading is that Netanyahu gave up his wish to resume the war now; he postponed it a little bit later to see if it is possible,” he said.
Now, it is important to see how the US will react to the fact that there is only one US citizen named on the list of captives due to be released on Saturday, considering US President Donald Trump had demanded the release of all US captives.
Israel currently ‘too weak’ to derail Gaza ceasefire
Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg tells Al Jazeera that Israel “is most likely too weak to do anything to change the course of the ceasefire“.
“Israel’s attempt to insist that all the captives are to be released on Saturday is based on a very vague, intentionally ambiguous statement by US President Trump, who talked about the release of all the captives,” he said.
“I don’t think Israel can do a great deal to prevent the ceasefire and certainly phase one from moving forward,” he said.
“Netanyahu does have a vested interest in this deal coming to fruition because [he] has already seen an upcoming election in Israel, which will certainly be called before a scheduled date of November 2026,” Goldberg said.
He noted that if Netanyahu can stand as the prime minister “who fought the difficult war and brought the difficult peace, I doubt any of his competitors will seem even remotely up to the task that he has managed to fulfil”.
