President Biden expressed optimism about a ceasefire in Gaza but both Israel and Hamas say that his comments were “premature.” Biden was hoping the ceasefire could begin next Monday. The rest of us were hoping it would have started yesterday.
Reuters reports that Hamas wants the ceasefire to be permanent rather than six weeks. Haaretz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants assurance that any “terrorists” that Israel frees will be flown to a different country such as Qatar or Turkey. Only Israel regularly detains prisoners on little to no grounds without trial so how are we to know that who they release is a terrorist or just a civilian prisoner, akin to the civilians that Hamas has in custody?
Netanyahu has also said that he does not want a delay to the planned ground invasion of Rafah. He is speaking of this as if it was always in the cards but in October when Israel’s retaliation began, Rafah is where Palestinians were told to go. Why is a ground invasion necessary to defeat Hamas?
According to Time, “President Joe Biden has pointedly told Israel that Rafah…should not be the next battleground.” Raise your hand if you think President Biden has any say in this whatsoever.
