Israeli cabinet approves sending negotiators to Doha after heated debate
It took five hours of heated discussions, which devolved into shouting matches, according to Israeli media reports, for the cabinet to approve sending negotiators to Doha. There are now disagreements, especially regarding the distribution of aid.
Hamas says that the UN must be allowed to once again distribute aid at more than 400 distribution points across Gaza that they used to operate before Israel broke the ceasefire in March. This is not just the Hamas demand; it’s really an international one.
At this point, what Netanyahu wants to do is protect the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the control that Israel has now over the distribution of aid, which is not limited to food.
Israel wants Gaza to be ‘land without a people’
Netanyahu is not interested in a ceasefire, according to Adnan Hayajneh, professor of international relations at Qatar University, who told Al Jazeera that “there’s no hope that the ceasefire will continue” after all the captives are released, when Israel will return to “the same old story of killing the Palestinians”.
“I think what Israel wants is clear … it wants to land without a people … so Palestinians are given three choices: starve to death, get killed or leave the land.
“Palestinians and Hamas are interested in an overall ceasefire and the stop of the killing of the people and ending the conflict,” he said, adding that Israel is only interested in an agreement for the short-term target of securing the release of Israeli captives.
A Palestinian man carries a child wounded in an Israeli attack
‘Hamas will not be there’, Netanyahu says as he leaves for Washington
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will not agree to a ceasefire deal that allows Hamas to remain in the Gaza Strip, adding that the war would only be over when Hamas is defeated.
“We will not allow a situation that encourages kidnapping and murders,” the Israeli prime minister was quoted by Israeli media as saying while boarding a flight to Washington, DC in the US. “That means eliminating Hamas’s military capabilities. Hamas will not be there.”
Israel sent its negotiating team to the Qatari capital, Doha, for indirect talks with Hamas. Meanwhile, Netanyahu was heading to meet US President Donald Trump, whom he thanked for a “tremendous victory” against Iran in the 12-day Israel-Iran war last month.
“We have already transformed the Middle East beyond recognition, and we now have a chance to bring a great future to the people of Israel and the Middle East,” he said.
Retired Israeli general says Hamas fighters back to pre-war numbers
Israeli (reserve) Major-General Yitzhak Brik says Hamas has regained its pre-war strength, contradicting the Israeli army’s accounts of progress in Gaza, calling the reality on the ground “grim”.
Writing an opinion article published by Israeli news outlet Maariv, Brik claimed that Hamas now numbers about 40,000 fighters, similar to its strength before the war began in Gaza, with many operatives stationed in tunnels.
“They continue to fight as guerrillas as they have been fighting since the beginning of the war,” Brik wrote. “They were never an army, and therefore they have not lost their military capabilities as the Chief of Staff [of the Israeli Army] claims.”
