As Netanyahu hedges, Hamas' Sinwar undecided between deal or regional war

Analysis

Ben Caspit

Aug 20, 2024

Yahya al-Sinwar (C), Gaza Strip chief of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, waves to supporters during a rally marking the 35th anniversary of the group's foundation, in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. Hamas will end talks on securing a prisoner exchange with Israel unless there is progress soon, the militant group's leader in the Gaza Strip said on December 14. Since Israel's 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group has held the bodies of Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, although Hamas has never confirmed their deaths. — MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images

TEL AVIV — Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel Tuesday for Egypt and Qatar to report on Benjamin Netanyahu's acceptance of a US proposal that bridges the remaining differences over a hostage-for-cease-fire deal with Hamas, but it is not at all certain that the Israeli prime minister indeed intends to go along with all the compromises put forward by the Biden administration.

Although Blinken described the proposal formulated by the US and its fellow negotiators in Cairo and Doha as “probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity” for such an agreement, its prospects remain unclear.

“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal, that he supports it,” Blinken told reporters on Monday. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”

Nonetheless, various Netanyahu aides spent the day dampening expectations and insisting that the prime minister does not intend to compromise on his positions. Chief among them, according to his aides, is Israel’s insistence on maintaining a presence along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, which has for years served as a conduit for smuggling weapons and goods into the besieged enclave.