It appears that the months-long efforts by U.S. President Joe Biden to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and facilitate a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas will not bear fruit soon.
US Reassesses Its Strategy
The U.S. administration’s hopes of reaching an agreement before the upcoming presidential election on November 5th have been dashed, failing to secure a significant achievement for Biden’s record.
A new U.S. report revealed that American officials have become highly skeptical about the prospects of reaching an agreement regarding the besieged sector. According to Axios, they believe that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, does not currently wish to reach an agreement. Furthermore, the White House is reassessing its strategy regarding the Gaza deal, with senior Biden aides discussing whether there is any point in advancing a new proposal amid prevailing belief that the latest proposal concerning Gaza will lead to nothing.
These developments come at a time when Washington has started reassessing its next steps concerning a transitional agreement it had put on the negotiation table in recent weeks under a “take it or leave it” approach, as U.S. officials reported. This reassessment is due to Hamas’ new demand concerning the Palestinian prisoners that Israel would release, according to the Washington Post.
A senior U.S. official revealed that the two sides had initially agreed on Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in exchange for Hamas releasing Israeli soldiers. However, days ago, Hamas made a new demand described by the U.S. official as “poison in the honey,” stating that Palestinian prisoners should be exchanged for Israeli civilians held in Gaza since October 7th.
Israel, for its part, has hindered the negotiations over the past nine months with new demands, not least of which is maintaining military control over the Philadelphia Corridor (Salah al-Din Axis) that extends between southern Gaza and the Egyptian border.
Negotiators are increasingly convinced that there is no genuine intention to resolve the conflict and cease fire between both sides, Israel and Hamas alike.
Wave of Protests
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly reiterated last week that his forces would not withdraw from the Philadelphia Corridor for years, sparking Egypt’s ire, which has been mediating the ceasefire negotiations for months, and igniting a wave of protests in Tel Aviv by families of Israelis held in Gaza.
Approximately 100 Israeli prisoners remain in the devastated Palestinian sector, including about 64 alive, according to Israeli military estimates. Some U.S. officials, however, estimate the number of living prisoners at only about 32.
Despite several rounds of negotiations held over the past months under American, Egyptian, and Qatari sponsorship, the sides have yet to reach a consensus.
