Author: BlackMask Financial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected ceasefire proposals because he says Hamas’s call for a withdrawal of all troops from Gaza and an end to the war is unacceptable.

Mr Netanyahu said agreeing such proposals would “leave Hamas intact” and leave the possibility of another attack in future.”Surrendering to the demands of Hamas would be a terrible defeat for the State of Israel,” he said in a video statement.

Mediated negotiations for a pause in the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas have been going on in Egypt, but a deal appears some way off. Mr Netanyahu said Hamas was “entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power”. He said it would allow more “massacres, rapes and kidnapping”. Hamas said in a statement it was “still keen to reach a comprehensive, interconnected agreement that ends the aggression, guarantees withdrawal, and achieves a serious prisoner exchange deal”. The group’s Ismail Haniyeh, blamed Mr Netanyahu of “sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators”. The proposal put to Hamas had set out a three-stage process for an immediate, six-week ceasefire and partial release of Israeli hostages, with some sort of Israeli pull-out in exchange. There was a brief ceasefire and prisoner and hostage swap last year, but it did not turn into a longer-term truce. Intense pressure is on Israel’s government domestically to achieve a deal and get more hostages released, with families holding regular vigils and campaigning. Mr Netanyahu also said on Sunday his cabinet had voted to close the local office of Qatar’s state-owned news broadcaster Al Jazeera. Israel claims the channel has collaborated with Hamas.”Al Jazeera reporters harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers,” Mr Netanyahu said. “It’s time to remove the Hamas mouthpiece from our country.”The channel called the claims a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that threatens its reporters’ safety and said it would pursue “every legal step”. “The background of this (shutdown) decision is not professional or journalistic… it’s political,” said Waleed Omari, bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It comes after a law was passed last month allowing Israel to act against foreign channels that “harm” the country. It’s understood it allows for an initial 45-day closure which could then be renewed…… NN: What a bullshit  deal. They need to go into Rafah and kill the tunnel  rats and then apologize. And send lots of aid trucks.

An ammunition shipment meant for Israel was halted by the United States last week, Axios reported on Sunday citing Israeli officials.

According to the officials, the move awoke worries inside the Israeli government, as the authorities scrambled to find the reasons for this. The White House declined to give any statements with regard to the subject.

Axios mentioned that this was the first time Washington did this since the tensions between Israel and Hamas escalated on October 7, 2023. Previous reports claimed that the United States could potentially limit its assistance to Israel, should the latter carry out a Rafah Invasion. Meanwhile, earlier today, in a speech Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if the country needs to “stand alone, we will stand alone.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Sunday that he shouldn’t be blamed for the lack of a ceasefire deal. “It’s Hamas that’s preventing” the agreement. “We are working in every possible way to free the abductees. This is at the forefront of our minds. Israel was and still is ready to make a truce in the fighting to free our abductees,” Netanyahu stressed in a video posted on his social media channels. He underlined, however, that Israel will not be succumbing to Hamas’ demands, adding that the country will “continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved.” Netanyahu claimed that although Israel is still open to reaching an agreement, Hamas is the one that remains “entrenched in its positions.”Iran again calls for ‘immediate’ ceasefire in Gaza Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Nasser Kanaani shared on Sunday in a post on X that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called for “an immediate, complete, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in all areas of Gaza,” while delivering a speech at the summit of the Islamic Cooperation Organization in Gambia. The foreign minister underlined that “the human blockade of Gaza” must be lifted chttps://youtu.be/mLLxYZPRae8ompletely, while further hostage exchanges need to take place. He also called for an immediate arms and trade embargo against Israel.Amir-Abdollahian stressed that the Israeli military must withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, adding that the country must “be stopped, brought to justice and punished.”

Islamic Resistance claims attack on Haifa port

 

Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages during the first round of the latest negotiations on a new ceasefire deal with Israel, the Al-Akhbar newspaper reported. The outlet also noted the decision would mark a change in the organization’s previous stance. The news came after the allegations Hamas was about to accept a truce agreement with Israel. NN: This story is a work in progress

Hamas again warns Israel against Rafah op

In the second statement in hours, a diplomatic official again denies reports that Israel will agree to a hostages-for-truce agreement with Hamas that includes an Israeli commitment to end the war in Gaza.

The official further says that reports suggesting Israel will agree to the mediators providing guarantees for an end to the war are also false.

The source says Hamas is still demanding that Israel agree to end the war as a condition for any deal, “and in doing so is thwarting the possibility to reach an agreement.”

Hamas leadership approved the implementation of the first phase of the hostage deal

Hamas will announce soon that it agreed to the Egyptian mediation proposal, according to Saturday Arab media reports. The Egyptian “Al-Rad” channel reported that Hamas waived the condition for a cessation of fighting in the first phase of a hostage deal. According to the report, Hamas waived the condition in the first mediation stage, with the guarantees of hostage mediators.  Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reported that the announcement would come within days, while Qatari government-aligned newspaper Al-Sharq reported that it would come within hours. “In light of recent contacts with the mediator brothers in Egypt and Qatar, the Hamas delegation will head to Cairo [on] Saturday to complete the discussions,” Al-Sharq quoted Hamas as saying. Hamas’s delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday morning, Hamas told the Saudi newspaper Asharq on Saturday. Hamas also said its primary focus would be achieving national consensus and rebuilding the Strip. It was also reported that in recent hours, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and Hamas have held discussions on the number of prisoners to be released in the deal. Hamas, according to the Al-Quds report, also received American guarantees for a permanent cessation of the war and the withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip in the third phase of the deal. Hamas also reportedly said that there is no need for a permanent ceasefire as a precondition of talks, as they still hold senior IDF officers hostage and will be able to use them as leverage in discussion of a more permanent ceasefire. The IDF denied that it would forgo an invasion of Rafah due to a hostage deal, telling the Israeli media, “As decided by the politicians, the IDF will enter Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there, whether or not there will be a temporary ceasefire for the release of our hostages.” Political officials agreed, saying that a hostage deal was not connected to a Rafah invasion and that the invasion would proceed regardless of the success of the agreement. A senior Hamas official confirmed this to N12 on Saturday morning, saying that the Hamas leadership had approved the implementation of the first phase of the hostage deal. According to the report, the shift seems to be caused by guarantees from the US, Qatar, and Egypt that Israel would entirely withdraw from the Gaza Strip by the end of the deal. Citing reports in Arab media, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that a senior Saudi official confirmed that Hamas was satisfied with the American guarantees. The N12 report noted that the same source said that CIA Director William Burns would return to Cairo on Saturday and meet with the senior Hamas negotiating team. The source went on to say that part of the assurances was that Israel would not enter Rafah at any point of the deal. He also confirmed that compromises had been reached on the number of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Amid conflicting reports regarding whether or not an Israeli operation in Rafah could occur in the event of Hamas agreeing to a hostage deal proposal, Y-Net, citing an Al Jazeera interview with senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, reported that the Islamist organization was confused by the Israeli rhetoric.

“Unfortunately, there was a clear statement from Netanyahu that no matter what might happen, whether there will be a ceasefire or not – he will order the operation in Rafah,” Hamdan said. “This means that there will be no ceasefire and that the fighting will continue, which is contrary to what we are discussing. We want to understand what he means. Our understanding is that any ceasefire agreement means that there will be no more attacks in Gaza.”

“The results today will be different. We have reached an agreement over many points, and a few point remain,” one Egyptian security source told Reuters. A Palestinian official with knowledge of the mediation efforts sounded cautious optimism. “Things look better this time but whether an agreement is on hand would depend on whether Israel has offered what it takes for that to happen,” the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.    

developing story

According to the report, Hamas was guaranteed by the U.S. for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and that Israeli forces will not continue fighting once the hostages are released. An Israeli official told Haaretz that ‘Israel will, under no circumstances, agree to end the war as part of a deal’ and is determined to enter Rafaha. One senses disappointment that Hamas has agreed.

An Israeli official close to ongoing talks to secure a hostage release deal discounts Arab media reports that claim the US has guaranteed Israel will withdraw all troops from Gaza at the conclusion of a three-phased ceasefire agreement. Contrary to the reports, Israel will under no circumstances agree to the end of the war as part of an agreement to release our hostages,” the official says. “As the political echelon decided, the IDF will enter Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there – with or without a temporary respite to allow for the release of our hostages,” the official adds. Israel has repeatedly rejected ending the war to destroy Hamas in Gaza as a condition for a hostage release deal.

Hamas delegation in Cairo is preparing to announce a positive response in the next few hours to the latest ceasefire proposal to reach a deal with the Israeli government, the Times of Israel reported on Saturday quoting Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper sources. The media said that an undisclosed source within Hamas said the group is prepared to accept the deal without requiring the removal of Israeli forces from Gaza. It was reported that today, representatives from the Palestinian militant organization Hamas arrived in Egypt to carry out discussions regarding a potential ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza. On Friday, Hamas stated its determination to reach a truce in a “positive spirit”.