Justice for the Palestinians and Security for Israel are discussed in an opinion by the senator from Vermont
The Interaction of Hamas and Israel with the Gazan People During the Second Day of the Gaza War: A New Look at a Promised Deal
A deal was struck early Wednesday morning between Hamas and Israel, which will see 50 Israeli hostages freed.
The deal came at a time when Democrats are increasingly divided over Mr. Biden’s embrace of Israel, particularly as the civilian toll in Gaza grows, and as polling shows the president receiving low marks on his handling of the crisis ahead of his re-election campaign.
But the arrangement was also the latest example of the widening breach between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s overwhelming response to the Hamas attacks, which has led to the deaths of about 12,000 people in Gaza. For weeks, Mr. Biden has publicly and privately tried to convince the prime minister to pause the bombardment of Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid and to reduce civilian casualties.
One group of leaders led by Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, sought to delay the cease-fire and release of 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel because of the fear it would slow the momentum of Israel’s invasion, allow Hamas to regroup and draw international attention away from the remaining 190 people held in captivity in Gaza.
An unnamed senior Israeli government official told Channel 12 they were close to a deal for at least 50 hostages, but said there were still issues to be worked out. The hostages would include children, their mothers, and other women according to a television report.
There needs to be a humanitarian pause so that badly needed supplies can enter Gaza and save lives. If Wednesday morning’s deal — in which 50 Israeli hostages are to be freed in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting — is honored, it is a promising first step that we can build upon, and hopefully work to extend the pause. To prevent disease and starvation, the UN needs to give them time to set up the distribution network and build shelters. This window will also allow for talks to free as many hostages as possible. This extended pause must not precede a resumption of indiscriminate bombing. Israel will continue to go after Hamas, but it must dramatically change its tactics to minimize civilian harm.
Yarden Roman, the sister of Gili Roman who was taken hostage in the Be’eri kibbutz, said that they are going up now that the situation is better. “The fear is that the higher we go, the farther we’ll fall. There’s a lot of anxiety.”
The Israeli decision to allow for a break in the fighting in Gaza was announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a message. If it holds, it would be the longest halt in hostilities since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks prompted Israel to begin its bombardment and subsequent ground invasion of Gaza.
Israeli and Hamas Hostages, Families Wait with Hope and Fear: One Case Study in the Emerging-Host-Return Agreement
Yifat said her anxious wait for the news has been spurred on by her hope that her cousin will be found.
“I’m trying to take care not to be happy too quickly,” Ms. Zailer said on Tuesday. “It could collapse tomorrow, for any reason. We might see the days pass, the hostages returning — and Shiri and her children not among them.”
One of the youngest Israelis kidnapped by Hamas-led attackers was less than a year old named Kfir. His family in Israel are not sure where he and his brother are being held or even if they are still alive.
But even if Ms. Bibas, Kfir and Ariel return home as part of the emerging hostage deal — far from guaranteed — Yarden, her husband, is likely to stay behind.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video depicting Yagil, a soldier who had been killed on Oct. 7 alongside Hamas. He asked Israel to bring him home in the video. Hostages often appear in such videos under duress and their statements are likely to have been coerced.
Hamas in Gaza: “Mirrors of a humanitarian organization in Gaza“, said Ms. Phillips-Bahat
Ms. Phillips-Bahat and her family are still optimistic, despite the fact that they have not been told if her cousins will be in the exchange.
The leader of Hamas’ political wing said Tuesday that the militant group had “delivered its response” to mediators in Qatar and that it was “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel more than six weeks after its Gaza-based fighters launched a massive cross-border attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and seized around 240 hostages.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement late Monday that its president, Mirjana Spoljaric, had met with Haniyeh in Qatar, calling for “the immediate release of hostages.”
The aid group said that it “does not take part in negotiations leading to the release of hostages” because of its role as a humanitarian intermediary.
It has been more than six weeks since Israel launched a campaign against Hamas in Gaza that it says killed more than 1200 Israelis. More than 12,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardments on Gaza, according to the latest data from the Gaza health ministry.
Israel, which insists that hospitals in Gaza are being used by Hamas as covert command posts, has received international criticism for attacks that have hit the medical facilities.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a status report on Tuesday that the Indonesian Hospital had been hit by fire five times since hostilities began.
“This health facility is under an electrical power (blackout) due to lack of fuel and it also faces severe shortages of water, essential medicines and supplies.”
The Israeli-Israel War in Gaza: U.S. Warped Security and Diplomacy, the World Food Program, and the Invasion of Gaza
Earlier this week, Israel’s military released video it said proved that Hamas had used Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, as a covert base. The facility was badly damaged and electricity was cut off during the Israeli operations to capture it. The premature babies were taken to hospitals in Egypt for treatment.
Existing food systems are collapsing, and to reach those in need, WFP and our partners need more access and resources. To have a real impact, we need hostilities to stop.
Last week, the U.N. World Food Program warned that Gaza was facing widespread hunger as a result of the conflict. The entire population is in need of food assistance, it said in a statement.
The first group initially took the upper hand, persuading Mr. Netanyahu to delay a cabinet vote originally planned for Nov. 14, according to three of the officials. They hoped that more military pressure might give Israel more influence at the negotiating table, allowing more hostages to be freed.
Another group, which included David Barnea, the head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, who led the negotiations for Israel, argued that the deal was better than none and that the invasion could continue after the brief cease-fire, according to four senior security officials who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.
But the American officials say the death toll in Gaza — around 13,000, about 40 percent of them children, according to the health ministry there — is too high, and has turned many nations against Israel’s tactics and undercut public support for the country in the United States. The US is worried about the possible Israeli offensive in southern Gaza, where two million people have sought shelter.
He said that if Hamas wanted to avoid more Israeli military action, they would have to pay for it in terms of releasing more hostages but getting more Palestinian prisoners in return.
Officials in the region expect intensive diplomacy to continue, with potential visits in the near future by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and other senior U.S. officials.
He said that the dynamic that they put in play is interesting. It’s not that they expect the pause will turn into a cease-fire” lasting weeks or longer.
Martin S. Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he believes that President Biden remains opposed to a cease-fire, as he has said many times, on the grounds that it would amount to a victory for Hamas.
In an interview with National Public Radio on Wednesday,Brett McGurk the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa said the agreement should allow for more transit through multiple border crossing into Gaza that he said had been under regular shelling from Hamas.
The four-day pause might be extended, if Mr. McGurk’s comments are to be believed, adding that he could do more with more time.
The Israeli-Israeli War in Gaza After the Gaza City Attack: The U.S.-Israel War in the Context of a Comprehensive Solution
In anticipation of the deal to release hostages and prisoners, the U.S. Agency for International Development positioned humanitarian aid in Egypt for swift delivery into Gaza for once the fighting pauses. The main goals of the U.S. are to maintain electricity supplies to Gaza and provide fuel for water desalinization.
David Satterfield, the U.S. special envoy for humanitarian aid, is in the region and negotiating with Israeli officials over the safe areas, a U.S. official said, with the hope that the planned four-day halt to the fighting gives the Americans enough of a window to get an agreement.
According to US officials, the Israeli government is being pressured to allow for the creation of safe areas in the south, which would be largely undamaged by strikes so far, in order to make them safe from attacks.
In the wake of the attack on Gaza City, the Israeli government told everyone to go to southern Gaza. But Israel has continued to carry out airstrikes across the south with large munitions: 1,000- to 2,000-pound bombs.
“We have made clear to them, as we have made clear publicly, that we think they should not commence with further activities in the south until they have taken the proper steps to account for the humanitarian needs there,” Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said at a news briefing on Tuesday.
According to US officials, they have told their Israeli counterparts that an offensive in the south with high civilian casualties would further tarnish Israel’s reputation in the eyes of the world and call for a long-term cease-fire.
Shortly after the attack, the government of Qatar, a small Gulf emirate that hosts some Hamas leaders but maintains close relations with the United States, approached the White House with information about the hostages and suggested the possibility of a deal to win their release. The Qataris asked for a small group of US officials to work with them and the Israelis.
The deal to bring Americans home was a testament to the dedication of many dedicated individuals within the United States government according to Mr. Biden. It is important that all aspects are implemented.
Israeli Human Rights Campaign in the Light of the Hamas “Process”: Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-Israel Interaction
Hamas shouldn’t keep people as hostages and should release all of them. But it is appropriate that Israel release prisoners and detainees to advance this goal,” said Jessica Montell, executive director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, which provides legal aid to Palestinians.
The top lawyer for the National Security Council was asked to take the lead by Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser. Other agencies were kept in the dark about the initiative.
Mr. McGurk, who has wide contacts in the region, held early morning phone calls each day with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and then briefed Mr. Sullivan, who kept Mr. Biden informed. Mr. Sullivan stayed in touch with Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi, two of Mr. Netanyahu’s closest advisers.
“So we’re very welcoming [for this deal and] everyone who comes out of this terror and this horror. It’s hard because maybe my sister won’t be among the 50 people. I’m trying not to get my hopes up.
When Hamas fighters attacked the Supernova concert, Romi Gonen was able to call her mother. In a recording of part of a conversation shared by the family, gunshots can be heard and the family believes the voices of Hamas fighters.
With so much uncertainty, Gonen says she and her family now have to wait a little longer for a phone call from Israeli government officials, confirming whether Romi is coming home as part of this deal.
Yarden Gonen, her mother and other siblings have been coming to a square in Tel Aviv where the families of hostages gather each day to share support and information. Other Israelis are also keeping vigil.
The sense of community has been a big help to Gonen’s family. But even with that help, she said these weeks of waiting without solid information about her sister have been exhausting and terrifying.
“We have our ups and downs. We have so much support,” she says. Right now, I have a family. All the [hostage] families are in the same boat I’m in, suffering from the same pain and uncertainty.”
A coalition of families whose relatives were taken hostage issued a statement on Wednesday, urging the Israeli government to move quickly to secure the release of additional hostages.
Israel has indicated by releasing a total of 300 Palestinian prisoner names that more exchanges of Israeli hostages for prisoners may may occur in future phases of the negotiated deal, if the initial agreement is carried out.
Hamas, the Evil Dead, and the Fate of the Palestinians: Israel vs. Palestine and Israel’s War with Israel
While Yarden Gonen worries about her sister, she is also frightened for her partner, who’s been called up to serve in Israel’s army as part of a mobilization of 300,000 reservists to support the war.
“This is the fear all the time because you don’t know what they’re planning or what they know or what they are doing or what they plan to do,” Gonen says.
After the deal was made public, Gonen told NPR that he was just praying and sending good energy. “I’ll be excited for anyone that will be [released] because they are my family too.”
To bring this war to a conclusion and avoid a future one, we must first be aware of the facts. The attack by Hamas killed more than 1,200 men, women and children and took more than 200 hostages. On a per-capita basis, if Israel had the same population as the United States, that attack would have been the equivalent of nearly 40,000 deaths, more than 10 times the fatalities that we suffered on 9/11.
The goal of Hamas is to destroy the state of Israel, and it was made clear before and after Oct. 7. Just last week a spokesman for Hamas told The New York Times: “I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.”
Second, Israel has done nothing in recent years to give hope for a peaceful settlement — maintaining the blockade of Gaza, deepening the daily humiliations of occupation in the West Bank, and largely ignoring the horrendous living conditions facing Palestinians.
Needless to say, I do not have all of the answers to this never-ending tragedy. Those of us who care about peace and justice need to give Israelis and Palestinians a realistic path to address the current reality in order to give them hope for the future. I think the United States can use a moral position to move us toward peace in the region and justice for the Palestinians.
If long-suffering Palestinians are ever going to have a chance at self-determination and a decent standard of living, there must be no long-term Israeli re-occupation and blockade of Gaza. If Hamas is removed from power and Palestinians are given a better life, then an Israeli occupation of Gaza would be counter productive and beneficial to Hamas. For the sake of regional peace and a brighter future for the Palestinian people, Gaza must have a chance to be free of Hamas. There can be no occupation for a long time.
Let’s be clear: this is not going to happen on its own. Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party was explicitly formed on the premise that “between the Sea and the Jordan [River] there will only be Israeli sovereignty,” and the current coalition agreement reinforces that goal. This is more than just ideology. The Israeli government has worked towards this goal. Over one half a million people live in areas of the West Bank that both the United Nations and the United States deem to be occupied territories. They used state violence to back up the annexation. Since Oct. 7, the United Nations reports that at least 208 Palestinians, including 53 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces and settlers. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Mr. Netanyahu has made clear where he stands on these critical issues. So should we. If asking nicely worked, we wouldn’t be in this position. The only way these necessary changes will happen is if the United States uses the substantial leverage we have with Israel. And we all know what that leverage is.
The four-day pause in the fighting will begin with the release of at least 10 Israelis each day. The prisoners from the Palestinians would be freed over the same period.
Early Wednesday, Israel published the names of Palestinian prisoners slated for release in accordance with Israeli law, which allows the Israeli public to submit objections to Israel’s Supreme Court. The group of Israeli victims petitioned the court to stop the deal, Israel’s Channel 13 reported. The court is not expected to intervene.
On the list are 33 women and the remainder are teenage boys aged 14-18. In the past few years, many people have been charged with offenses such as stone- throwing and have been arrested. Most are detainees awaiting trial on charges including incitement, stone-throwing and attempted murder. Some are being held in “administrative detention,” a detention without charge or trial.
The Israeli army promised to inform the writer of their intentions before they released his wife and daughter from Gaza.
A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem, Yousef Afghani, was surprised to see his 40-year-old daughter Aisha Afghani on Israel’s list of prisoners it is prepared to release. She has been in prison for seven years since being convicted of attempting to stab someone. Her father told NPR she was carrying a knife but denied she attempted a stabbing.
Any father’s feelings are my feelings. Celebration and happiness and joy,” Afghani told NPR. But he also condemned the kidnapping of Israelis to Gaza, which resulted in the deal to free his daughter. We do not want any kind of attack against civilians.
Pope Francis met individually with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza as well as families of Palestinians held in Israel. In unscripted remarks afterward, Francis said he felt “both sides are suffering,” but that the conflict had “gone beyond war. This isn’t war; it’s terrorism.
People believed to be held by Hamas include Israelis and Americans as well as foreigners from several other countries. The Thai farm workers were seized in the Oct. 7 attack near the Gaza border. Fox knows that the Thais are not a part of the exchange deal.
Mediation of the Middle East War, and a Democratic Solution to the Problem of Al Thani and Biden: A Brief Address to the PM and President of Egypt
Biden thanked the prime minister and president of Egypt for their assistance in brokering the deal.
Al Thani said he hopes the humanitarian truce can stop the war machine and bloodshed. Egypt would continue to try to reach final and sustainable solutions that achieve justice, impose peace, and guarantee the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, said el-Sisi in his speech.
