The optimistic Donald Trump continues to give the cards in the difficult game of the peace plan for Gaza, making pressures both on Benyamin Netanyahu and on Hamas before the negotiations enter the heart today in Sharm El-Sheikh, but that according to the tycoon they are already “are going well” and will require “probably a couple of days”.
The feeling is that there is an acceleration on the exchange of prisoners, crucial knot to be able to proceed with the rest. A source of Hamas reported to Al-Arabiya that the Palestinian group has already started recovering the bodies of the deceased hostages, asking “the cessation of the bombings to complete the operation”.
Meanwhile, the international red cross is taking action with some preparatory meetings. The plan for the strip “is an excellent agreement for Israel and for the whole Arab world, the Muslim world and the whole world”, assured the American president, launching a warning to Hamas on the CNN, which will undergo a “complete destruction” if it refuses to yield the power and control of Gaza. But then, while saying that “we do not need flexibility because practically everyone agrees”, he let him glimpse a mediation margin: “There will always be some changes,” he said speaking with the reporters before preside over the ceremony in Norfolk for the 250 years of the US Navy.
The Donald also assured that “Bibi agrees” in interrupting the bombings in Gaza and supporting the US peace plan. But it is clear that he had to force his hand, according to Axios. According to the site, always well informed, last Friday there was a stormy call between the two, with Trump who strilled the Israeli premier for having negatively welcomed Hamas’ response to the American proposal: “I don’t understand why you are always so fucking negative. This is a victory. Accept it”.
Meanwhile, the secretary of state Marco Rubio also intervened, who asked Israel to stop the bombings because “the hostages cannot be released in the middle of an attack”. And he warned that Trump “wants to see the results quickly. It is not something that can drag on. We cannot be here in three weeks still to discuss”. Rubio also explained that the first phase of the negotiations in Egypt will focus on the “logistics” of the release of the 48 Israeli hostages (20 still alive), in exchange for 250 Palestinian life sentences and 1,700 residents of Gaza held after 7 October. The second phase – the disarmament of Hamas and the governance of the strip – will be “more difficult”, admitted. But the militiamen would intend to ask to connect the two phases, a scenario that Israel rejects. “Until the first point will be respected, the release of all the hostages, living and dead … we will not go to the other points,” said Netanyahu. The Palestinian resistance movement reiterated that it is “very interested in reaching an agreement to end the war and immediately start the process of exchange of prisoners according to the field conditions”.
And he is presenting a series of requests, including – according to the Saudi channel ASHARQ – the withdrawal of the IDF to the positions he occupied during the implementation of the previous January agreement, or outside the populated areas of the Strip, as well as the suspension for half a day of hunting and drones during the release of the prisoners and for the entire duration of the negotiations, which could last a week or more.
Hamas officials have declared that the negotiations will also concern the criteria for the release of the Palestinian prisoners, invoking the principle of seniority (based on the arrest and age date), which would allow the liberation of high exponents of Fatah, Hamas and other groups, such as Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Sa’adat, Ibrahim Hamed, Hassan Salameh and Abbas Sayyed. Figures that Israel does not want to release. Bibi insists on the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Striscia, where Gaza City is now almost empty, with 900 thousand Palestinians evacuated. But for now he has not made commitments for a complete Israeli military retreat, as foreseen the Trump plan. And as the Arab and Muslim States also asked in a joint support declaration to the Tycoon initiative, also relaunching the prospect of the two -states solution that Netanyahu adverse in all ways. The outcome of the negotiations between the delegations of Hamas and Israel will largely depend on the pressing of the American team, led by the special correspondent for the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son -in -law, with the support of Egyptian and Qatarini mediators.