After the latest round of releases of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza on Saturday, Netanyahu violated the ceasefire and unilaterally decided to cancel the release of 603 Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to be freed on the same day. He denounced the staged release of the Israeli prisoners by Hamas, claiming that this was enough reason to reconsider the terms of the deal.
However, it is no secret that Netanyahu did not want a ceasefire agreement in the first place, and that he was pressured by the new US administration to accept it in order to fulfill Trump’s pledge that the Israeli hostages would be released before he entered the White House on 20 January, marking an achievement which his predecessor, Joe Biden, miserably failed at over a whole year.
On signing the deal, Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet members, led by Finance Minister Bezlael Somtrich, repeatedly stated that a more destructive war would restart as soon as the first stage of the deal was concluded in early March, when nearly half the Israeli prisoners believed to remain alive were released. The equally extremist minister and, according to the US State Department, former member of a terrorist organisation Itamar Ben-Gvir, resigned in protest of what he dubbed a “surrender” agreement to Hamas.
Knowing that it now enjoys strong backing from the Trump administration, the Israeli government also violated several obligations agreed on in the ceasefire deal, particularly in terms of allowing in much needed humanitarian aid, fuel and mobile homes, tents and heavy equipment required to remove the insurmountable amounts of rubble following one of the heaviest ever bombing campaigns since World War II over 15 months. Israeli occupation troops have also continued to open fire at Palestinians in Gaza, killing scores of civilians.
While Trump passionately denounced the state of some of the Israeli prisoners released by Hamas, it was very sad that he made no mention of the miserable condition of thousands of Palestinian prisoners who continue to be held in Israeli prisons. The few hundreds of Palestinians released so far as part of the ceasefire agreement have all recounted horror stories of food deprivation, torture and abuse in Israeli prisons and detention centres.
The American president also expressed tremendous sympathy with the two Israeli children killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza along with their mother, according to Hamas, but ignored the fact that over 13,000 Palestinian children were killed and 25,000 wounded in the Israeli genocide. Without recognising unimaginable Palestinian suffering and basic human rights, it will never be possible for the US to play the role of an honest broker.
Further confirming his desire to resume the war in Gaza, disregarding the ceasefire agreement, was Netanyahu’s decision to delay beginning talks on the second stage of the deal, initially scheduled for the 16th day of the first stage, which is more than three weeks ago.
Knowing that the second stage requires the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and agreeing to a permanent ceasefire in return for the release of all the remaining Israeli prisoners held by Hamas, Netanyahu prioritised the survival of his own government instead.
With obvious US consent, Netanyahu is now clearly seeking to change the terms of the ceasefire deal, adding more difficult conditions aimed at strengthening his own standing amid rising opposition to his government, especially among the families of the remaining Israeli prisoners. He is setting as a precondition the disarmament of Hamas, ending its rule in Gaza and deporting of its leaders in order to carry out the remaining terms of the agreement and end the war.
However, while Netanyahu insists on eliminating Hamas, he also does not want to see a return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, making it practically impossible to start the reconstruction of the totally devastated Strip, let alone stop the war. His real intention is to continue occupying Gaza and maintain Israel’s ability to carry out military action at will.
Such a scenario will not be accepted by Egypt, Qatar and all the Arab countries that met in Riyadh late last week ahead of the Arab Summit due to be held in Cairo on 4 March. The main allies of the United States in the Arab region, topped by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan, are keen to cooperate with the new Trump administration to reach a permanent, just settlement between Palestine and Israel.
Yet, for such a goal to be reached, it has to be based on international law and respect of Palestinian rights, topped with the right to self-determination and to an independent state over all territories Israel occupied in the 1967 War.
The Arab leaders will also confirm their desire for a just peace when they meet in Cairo by concluding a detailed plan for the day after aimed at carrying out the difficult task of rebuilding the devastated Strip without removing its people. In this context, it was certainly welcome news to hear Trump state that he will no longer seek to force his unattainable proposal to remove all of Gaza’s two million people in order to rebuild Gaza and turn it into a large real estate project.
What Arab sponsors of the ceasefire deal now expect of their partner, the United States, is to respect the terms of the deal reached in January and to warn the Israeli premier and his government that they are playing with fire.
President Trump’s envoy, Witkoff, is due to tour the region this week; and the hope is that his arrival will mark the resumption of the ceasefire, starting with the release of the 603 Palestinian prisoners who were due to be released on Saturday. Witkoff had earlier declared that the second part of the agreement would certainly take place, but that will remain to be seen as long as the US administration provides backing for the backtracking of the Israeli premier and justifies his violations.
When the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin delayed the withdrawal of Israeli occupation troops from Gaza and Jericho according to the dates stated in the 1993 Oslo Agreement with the PLO, he said: “There are no sacred dates, but rather each date is conditioned on reaching an agreement.” Since then, and over more than three decades, this has become the standard practice in nearly all agreements Israel has reached with Palestine.
It is long overdue that Israel should adhere to the agreements it signs, especially after the worldwide condemnation of its barbaric, indiscriminate killing of over 50,000 Palestinians in the ongoing war on Gaza. Hopefully, the Trump administration will recognise sooner rather than later that blindly backing Israel, and allowing it to continue violating the agreements it signs is a guaranteed path towards more bloodshed and instability, not to the peace the new US president promised.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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