By Janet Ekstract-Pia Bozel, UNITED NATIONS – Prior to Sunday’s indirect talks between Israeli and Hamas delegations, U.S. President Joe Biden sent notes to Egyptian and Qatari leaders to pressure Hamas to “agree to and abide by a deal,” according to a senior administration official who spoke to AFP on Friday night. Hamas made it clear and confirmed ahead of the talks that its core demands haven’t changed – a demand for a complete ceasefire in Gaza and withdrawal of Israeli forces. Both Israel and Hamas negotiate through intermediaries and both have stuck to their own demands while accusing each other of holding up progress on a ceasefire deal. As a senior Biden administration official reiterated what some top diplomats have said that “There would be a ceasefire in Gaza today, had Hamas simply agreed to release this vulnerable category of hostages – the sick, wounded, elderly, and young women.” But in March, Biden, frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, called him “an obstacle to peace” as a multitude of Israelis are chanting in mass daily protests in Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas officials and Qatari mediator Al-Thani previously accused Israel of preventing the truce with its objections over the return of displaced Gazan civilians and the ratio of prisoners to hostages.
In a phone call with Netanyahu on Thursday, sources said that Biden pushed Netanyahu to “fully empower” his negotiators to reach a deal. Biden is especially unsettled with Netanyahu after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) chief admitted to the “unintentional” attack on a U.S. aid convoy World Central Kitchen (WCK) that killed all seven of its aid workers. Biden warned Netanyahu that the U.S. will reassess its position with Israel if aid routes aren’t opened up and if such an incident ever happens again. Global outrage hasn’t helped Israel’s position and as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had pointed out some time ago to Israel, any major incursion into Rafah “would be a mistake” and hurt Israel’s standing in the world. While talks have stalled over the last two months, American and Israeli negotiators will be at the talks on Sunday, in an attempt to renew a ceasefire-hostage deal. The Biden administration confirmed to the media that negotiations will take place in Cairo on the weekend but declined to comment on whether the U.S. CIA director will attend or if Mossad’s chief David Barnea would be there as well as whether Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani or Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel will be present.
U.S. allies are urging Biden to withhold U.S. military aid to Israel unless it abides by international law and commits to a ceasefire. On April 5, the U.N. Human Right Council adopted a resolution condemning the alleged “use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza.” The 47-member Human Rights Council supported a call “to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights.” Meanwhile, allies have been urging President Biden to use his leverage to stop the sale of arms to Israel. On Friday, 36 U.S. lawmakers signed a letter to Biden, urging him to reconsider the “recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed.”
The international community is not satisfied with preliminary findings by the IDF while World Central Kitchen, in a media statement said Israel “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza,” while adding that despite WCK staff having “followed all proper communications procedures” and the convoy being clearly marked – its staff were attacked anyway. WCK’s founder Chef Jose Andres called Israel’s actions “outrageous” and said the attack on WCK was done purposely to stop aid from getting to Palestinians. Andres told the media that the IDF knew exactly what they were doing and have killed a plethora of aid workers in its strikes. Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong in her response to IDF’s findings, said on Saturday, that it’s “not sufficient.” As a result, WCK said its operations are suspended while other aid groups have followed suit. As U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a U.N. Security Council Briefing on Friday: “In its speed, scale and inhumane ferocity, the war in Gaza is the deadliest of conflicts — for civilians, for aid workers, for journalists, for health workers and for our own (U.N.) colleagues.”
