• Israeli talks to negotiate a ceasefire are likely to be half hearted at best.
• This is probably because Israeli officials are internally aware that the Rafah ground invasion is going ahead.
The gulf state of Qatar, widely recognised as significant mediator of Israeli-Palestinian relations, has called recent talks for a renewed ceasefire between Gaza and Israel “not very promising”.
These talks are being held around a week after Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu called then ceasefire negotiations “delusional”. The new talks are taking place in Cairo where numerous senior officials and diplomats from Palestine, Israel, Qatar, Egypt, and the United States are said to be working.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was reported to have said that he remained optimistic over the prospect of a ceasefire, but then added that “time (was) not in (their) favour”.
Meanwhile, officials from Hamas have placed the blame on Israeli officials for the lack of progress and effort in achieving a ceasefire deal. Given that the Israeli government and Mr. Netanyahu are hell bent on initiating a new ground invasion in Rafah, these talks are unlikely to bear fruit and arguably weren’t intended secure a deal in the first place.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad whilst at a security conference in Munich commented that that issue with ceasefire negotiations is that they are drawn around the framework of securing hostages.
“This is the dilemma that we’ve been in and unfortunately that’s been misused by a lot of countries – that in order to get a ceasefire, it’s conditional to have the hostage deal,” said Sheikh Mohammad.
Pressuring is continuing to mount on PM Netanyahu from both home and abroad. On Saturday, thousands of protestors gathered in Tel-Aviv to call for early elections despite the fact that Israeli elections are not due to occur until 2026. Whether Mr. Netanyahu will admit it or not the opposition against him is growing.
Internationally, the Israeli Rafah ground invasion plan has been subject to intense criticism from aid agencies and human rights watchdogs. Even Israeli allies have cautioned Israel from launching the invasion.
US President Joe Biden has urged Israel to not launch an invasion without a plan to keep civilians safe. Whilst Israel claims to have plans for a humanitarian zone that civilians can seek refuge in. Yet, this is an impossible task given the density of South Gaza.
So far, over 28,000 civilians have been killed in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians.
