War in Gaza: Despite little progress towards a truce, Netanyahu pushes ahead with his intention to invade Rafah

Mediators between Israel and Hamas They continued this Tuesday in Qatar their efforts to agree a truce, after more than five months of war that have devastated the Gaza Strip and put the entire population under the threat of famine. But this does not mean that the Israeli prime minister is willing to give up his intentions to launch an offensive against the last “inhabitable” redoubt of the enclave: Rafah, where 1.7 million people are crowded together.

With this, the prime minister is taking the solid relationship between Israel and the United States at the limit, where Joe Biden’s administration has stepped up its criticism of the high number of civilian casualties in the war in the Gaza Strip and consider a “red line” the offensive announced in Rafah.

On Monday, the two leaders had their first telephone conversation in more than a month, during which tensions reached a fever pitch due to Netanyahu’s efforts to maintain the intensity of the war to Gaza to “destroy Hamas” and enter Rafah, the southernmost border with Egypt where approximately 1.4 million displaced people remain, more than half the population of the enclave, and four battalions of the Islamist group.

“We talked about the latest developments in the war and Israel’s commitment to achieving its goals: eliminating Hamas, freeing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza poses no threat to Israel,” said Netanyahu, who over the weekend approved the military plan to invade Rafahdespite clear US reluctance.

In dialogue with Clarion, the Argentine nurse Sofía Piñeiro said from Rafah that what was once a city is now a huge refugee camp, where tens of thousands of people live in precarious tents made of plastic and sticks, spread out on the sidewalks and streets, where there are no they are cars due to lack of fuel. The place has become an incessant area of ​​people wandering on foot or in carts pulled by donkeys and horses.

“I can’t find words to describe what happens here every day,” he said, admitting that the big fear is the future. the Israeli line of fire is getting closer and closer.

For Netanyahu, Not operating in Rafah means not putting an end to Hamas and losing the war; a different position from that of Biden, who insisted that this is “nonsense” and is “deeply concerned” because this operation it would endanger the lives of over a million displaced people that they have nowhere to go, other than the fact that that city is the entry point for vital humanitarian aid coming from Egypt.

“A major ground operation It will be a mistake and will lead to more civilian deaths. The goals that Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be achieved by other means,” White House security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday, briefing the press on the conversation between Biden and Netanyahu.

The entry of greater humanitarian aid into the Stripinsufficient given Israel’s refusal to open additional land routes, This is another point of disagreement between the two countries and the United States is pushing for food to reach the north, where yesterday the UN declared an imminent risk of famine.

“This is an ongoing crisis in the relationship For me yessince Netanyahu returned to power, this will continue and get worse,” predicted Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, former advisor to numerous presidents and consul general in New York, in a conversation with EFE on the future of relations between Israel and the United States United States York.

Schumer’s words

Despite the telephone conversation aimed at calming the waters, the situation is critical after Biden supported the statements of the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, who on Thursday accused Netanyahu of being an obstacle to peace and called elections in Israel to replace it. he. “That was a great speech,” Biden said. the next day.

“Israel is not a banana republic, but an independent and proud democracy”, the Likud, the right-wing party led by Netanyahu, promptly responded to Schumer, who remained silent in the face of Biden’s support for the senator’s statements Jew, who occupies a prominent position within the Democratic Party.

Despite having reached the “lowest point” of the bilateral relationship, Pinkas he doesn’t believe a radical change will happen and clarified that, for the moment, Biden “has been very critical, but at a rhetorical level not in that of facts and policies.

“They condemn, express their disagreement or displeasure, reveal that they are thinking of reducing supplies of arms and ammunition, but at the moment they haven’t done anything yet“, said the diplomat, who does not rule out more forceful actions by the US administration in the future if the deterioration of relations continues.

Pinkas believes that Netanyahu has been “deliberately seeking a confrontation with the United States” for months, going beyond their red lines and contradicting them, in order to be able to blame Biden for the failure of the war if all its objectives are not achieved.

“It is clear that there is neither trust nor appreciation between Biden and Netanyahu. It is unfortunate to see this decline in the relationship between two natural allies,” said Danny Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the United States.

Despite the obvious tension, Ayalon believes that the United States will not change course in its relations and will maintain cooperation in defense and arms supply, because he is making a “clear distinction” between the government, the far right in Israel’s history, and the state and its citizens; something that is usually only done with dictatorial regimes.

“Let’s not forget that a militarily strong Israel is in the national security interests of the United States. in the region, because it is a deterrent for Iran and its proxies,” the former ambassador said, concerned that support for Israel in the United States has become a partisan issue.

The conflict erupted on October 7 with a Hamas attack on southern Israel that left 1,160 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Israel has launched an operation against the Gaza Strip with the aim of “annihilating” Hamas, in power in this enclave since 2007.

Israel’s aerial bombings and ground incursions are long gone 31,819 deathsaccording to the Ministry of Health of this territory.

Islamic militiamen They also kidnapped around 250 people in his October attack. The fate of the 130 still in Gaza, 33 of them are presumed deadit is one of the thorniest issues in the truce negotiations.

Negotiations for a truce

Mediators between Israel and Hamas continued their efforts this Tuesday in Qatar to agree a truce, while the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, began his sixth trip to the Middle East to unblock negotiations.

Blinken underlined this The entire population of Gaza finds itself “in a situation of serious food insecurity”.

“AND first time that an entire population has been classified as such,” the secretary of state said, based on data from a United Nations report published on Monday.

Your trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be used to negotiate a possible truce in Gaza, which in recent days They seemed to be moving forward a little.

Last week, Hamas has presented a new proposal agreement in which he accepted a six-week ceasefire instead of the permanent truce as he had requested until then.

Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea traveled to Doha on Monday to meet with Egyptian officials and the prime minister of Qatar.

The Mossad chief left Doha on Tuesday, but negotiations between technical teams continue to examine the details of a potential deal, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al Ansari said.

“We hope that a counter-proposal will be presented to Hamas, but this will not be the last stage of the process,” he said.

“I don’t think we can say that we are close to an agreement. We are cautiously optimistic regarding the negotiations they were recapturedbut it is too early to announce success,” he said.