Hamas has reportedly accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire and now it is down to Israel to approve it. The deal would allow for the release of dozens of Israeli and Palestinian hostages.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that he opposes this because he does not want Israel to release “terrorist hostages,” nor does he want to stop the war and “[dissolve] its achievements.” He calls this a “a catastrophe for the national security of the State of Israel.”
U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a “rare rebuke” of Israeli policy towards Palestinians. He said that Israel must acknowledge that Palestinians will never accept “being a non-people without national rights”. He continued: “Israelis must abandon the myth that they can carry out de facto annexation without cost and consequence to Israel’s democracy, to its standing, to its security.”
Blinken will present a plan for Gaza in a speech to the Atlantic Council on Tuesday morning. It includes a path forward for the Palestinians after the war. Will permanent Israeli presence be a part of that plan? This has been Israel’s number one demand for peace.
