The government of Israel, the most right-wing extremist in the country’s history, unanimously rejected this Sunday a yet-to-be-published plan drawn up by the United States and several Arab countries that would culminate in… the creation of a Palestinian state.
“Israel categorically rejects international demands for a permanent agreement with the Palestinians. The agreement, if reached, will be implemented only through direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement today. Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to a recent exclusive from The Washington Post quoting American and Arab officials, the United States plans to announce a proposal to establish a Palestinian state as part of a ceasefire in Gaza that would include the release of Israeli hostages.
This plan, according to American newspaper details, would include the evacuation of many or all settlements in the occupied West Bank territory, a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, as well as a security apparatus and an interim Palestinian government for a shared West Bank and Gaza.
“Israel will continue to resist the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state”Netanyahu’s office warned, although the proposal was supported by representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Palestine, according to the newspaper.
Like Netanyahu, the war cabinet minister Benny Gantz -Opposition leader before the conflict and who would win virtual elections today- rejected any “unilateral” action to recognize Palestine and warned of an impending land invasion in Rafah, where some 1.4 million displaced Gazans are, if the 134 prisoners in the enclave remaining people will not be released.
“The world needs to know and Hamas leaders need to know: If our hostages are not home by Ramadan, the fighting will spread to the Rafah area,” Gantz warned at a meeting of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem today and gave the deadline around March 10th (beginning of Ramadan).
Already this Saturday during the Munich Security Conference (Germany), the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhanreiterated that Arab countries were willing to integrate Israel into the region in exchange for a Palestinian state, a proposal backed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken..
Israel has “an extraordinary opportunity” to ensure its long-term security, Blinken said during a roundtable at the international conference, because, he argued, virtually all Arab countries now want to “normalize relations.”
Other hardline ministers in the Israeli government also rejected the creation of a Palestinian state today. The Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrichin which he asks Netanyahu for a second resolution expressing his “firm and unequivocal rejection” of this initiative.
“The truth is much broader and we should make clear the Israeli government’s opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state now and in the future,” Smotrich said on X today.
“There is widespread opposition in Israeli society to another ‘Hamastan’ (referring to the de facto power held by Hamas in Gaza) in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical name given by some Jews to the occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank describe.
For its part, a US government spokesman today reiterated that the existence of two states “is the best way to achieve a lasting end to the crisis in Gaza, which will bring lasting peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
It is celebrated today in the Gaza Strip 135 days of warThe total death toll is nearly 29,000 people, mostly women and children, in addition to an estimated 8,000 bodies among the rubble, according to Gaza Health Ministry data, which was also used as a sole guide by the Israeli army in its briefings.
Regarding the course of the war, the Defense Minister said: Yoav Gallant, assured today that Israeli troops have defeated the key Khan Younis brigade, which “no longer functions as a military unit” after two and a half months of fierce fighting in that city, and that the next target is Rafah, where the group has four battalions.
Jan Yunisthe capital in the southern Gaza Strip, was one of Hamas’ most important strongholds and the center of power of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in the enclave, for whom the Islamist group’s leadership is seeking a replacement abroad, according to the minister. of Israeli defense.
“The Hamas representation in the Gaza Strip is unresponsive, there is no one on the ground to talk to,” the minister added of Sinwar, whose whereabouts have been unknown for months.
Israel has not been able to find him in more than four months of war, although it has found evidence that he was hiding in underground tunnels in Khan Younis, but he has been constantly on the move so it is now unknown where he is or whether he remains within the enclave.