Asked on Monday when a Gaza cease-fire could start, Biden said: “I hope by the end of the weekend. … My national security adviser tells me that we’re close — we’re close — we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a cease-fire.”
Biden and his top aides have for weeks been almost singularly focused on securing a weeks-long cease-fire in the fighting in Gaza in exchange for the release of many of the more than 100 remaining hostages. The negotiations have proved difficult as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to appease far-right members of his government, who have opposed the deal, and Hamas has made demands that Israel finds unacceptable, including on the issue of releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages….
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The Israeli military believe’s it knows where the leader of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks is…
The Israeli military is confident that Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, is hiding inside a labyrinthine network of tunnels beneath southern Gaza. But he is surrounded by a human shield of hostages intended to deter an operation to capture or kill him, frustrating Israel’s efforts to dismantle the terrorist organization and bring the more than four-month-long war to a close.
The Israeli operation in Gaza cannot conclude until Sinwar is either captured, killed or no longer in a position to run the organization, current and former Israeli officials said in interviews. Underscoring the necessity of eliminating the terrorist leader, and the degree to which the war hinges on that mission’s success, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his Likud party faction earlier this month, “We will kill the Hamas leadership. … We must not end the war before then.”…
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The Palestininas prepare to the post conflict political governance…
Feb 26, 2024 – ISW Press
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that its 162nd Division uncovered a Hamas tunnel network connecting the Central Gaza Governorate to the northern Gaza Strip over the past several weeks. The IDF Nahal Brigade and Yahalom combat engineering unit located at least 35 entrances to the 10-kilometer-long complex equipped with plumbing, storage rooms, bedrooms, and military equipment. The tunnel passed under the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in the central Gaza Strip and extended to al Isra University in southern Gaza City. The IDF said that Hamas used the tunnel system to transfer personnel between the Central Brigade and Gaza City Brigade, particularly between the Zaytoun Battalion, the Nuseirat Battalion, and Sabra Battalion.
Reports that the Hamas mastermind Yahya Sinwar skipped town to the Sinai with hostages in tow may or may not be true, but he’s definitely not dead. And, after brief euphoria when the Israel Defense Forces liberated two hostages in a military raid, families are frantic that their loved ones will die before being released in a deal that never comes.
Their concerns about the war achievements tap into another overriding dynamic in public opinion: unlike most other countries, who rally around their leaders in wartime, all polls show that Israeli support for its government plunged after 7 October.
Three demonstrations held every Saturday night for weeks now tell the story. The biggest one is led by the families of hostages; it mobilises large, politically mainstream crowds demanding that the government prioritise hostage release, while avoiding an overtly anti-government message. The second is a swelling group drawn from the massive pro-democracy, anti-government movement of 2023. These protesters call openly and angrily to oust the government, and thousands of them fill a central plaza in Tel Aviv weekly. In a far corner of the plaza is the third group – a tiny clutch of activists protesting against the war, supporting a ceasefire and opposing Israel’s occupation. Few pay them much attention.
Yet, together, the protesters have been gathering force. Some strands have blocked the main highway out of Tel Aviv at night. Protests have spread to Jerusalem, at the prime minister’s residence, or to his private home in Caesarea, and other locations.
External pressure probably won’t change Israelis’ minds on its own. But it can add to the public’s growing image of its leadership as fanatical, corrupt, lethally incompetent, eager to sacrifice both democracy and the hostages while turning the country and its people into global pariahs. At some point, just as they voted this ruinous government in, Israelis will have to throw that same government out…..