CAIRO. – International pressure increased yesterday on Israel to reach a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would include a new hostage exchange and prevent an announced offensive against Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and would last at least six weeks.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden and King Abdullah of Jordan continued pressure for a ceasefire. “The United States is working on a hostage-taking agreement between Israel and Hamas that would bring immediate and sustained calm in Gaza for at least six weeks,” Biden told reporters in Washington.
CIA Director William Burns, Mossad chief David Barnes and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met with Egyptian officials in Cairo yesterday “to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza,” according to local television AlQahera News.
The talks took place “in a positive atmosphere,” the network said, citing a “senior Egyptian official.”
The pressure in this context comes not only from international actors, but also from the families of the hostages held in Gaza, who sent a message to the Israeli delegation: “Do not return until everyone is back. The quick and the dead”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered the army to prepare an offensive against Rafah on the border with Egypt, where 1.4 million Palestinians displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip during the war are seeking refuge since the conflict broke out on October 7 Israel and Hamas escalated last year.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said he hoped that the negotiations “will be successful in order to avoid a total offensive against Rafá (…), which would have devastating consequences” and that, according to the head of humanitarian operations of The organization, Martin Griffiths, “could lead to a massacre.”
China called on Israel to end its operation “as soon as possible” to “prevent an even more serious humanitarian catastrophe.”
Netanyahu reiterated his determination to continue military pressure “until complete victory” against Hamas, whose “last bastion” is Rafah, and to release “all” hostages.
Israel rescued two Argentine hostages in Rafah on Monday in a nighttime bombing operation that killed a hundred people, according to Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip.
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