Blinken will speak on Friday in Tel Aviv on the hostage agreement and the Rafah operation
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and meet with key Israeli authorities, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Additionally, Blinken will meet with top Saudi and Egyptian officials on Thursday in Riyadh and Cairo, respectively.
The purpose of Blinken’s visit to the Middle East, which includes Israel, as the most powerful US leader, is to inform the parties and mediators about the US position on the hostage situation and the potential ground invasion of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Rafah region.
Recently, US President Joe Biden advised Netanyahu against moving on with the ground operations in Rafah since doing so will result in the deaths of several Palestinian civilians, including women and children.
The Rafah sector of the Gaza Strip is home to an estimated 1.3 million civilians, and Israeli military plan to remove these people north of Rafah.
Egypt, on the other hand, has informed the American and Israeli authorities that it is adamantly opposed to the Rafah operation because it would result in a mass migration of refugees into its territory in the Sinai area, which borders Rafah.
Meanwhile, in Doha, Qatar, Israel and Hamas are still holding indirect mediation talks.
The mediatory negotiations are not going well since Israel is maintaining a firm stance and refusing to budge on several of Hamas’s demands surrounding the hostage arrangement.
IANS was informed by sources in the Israel Defense Ministry that the negotiations would only go further if the Israeli side offered their demands.
Israel has informed the mediators that Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons on accusations of horrific crimes are not eligible for release and has requested the two-step release of all hostages held by Hamas.
The Israeli government was informed by intelligence agencies such as Mossad, Shin Bet, and military intelligence, according to sources in the Israel Defense Ministry, that Hamas had completely collapsed and that the Rafah area held the key to eliminating the militant group’s remaining resistance.
There are just four army battalions that Hamas is said to have left in the Rafah region, and if these are destroyed as well, Hamas will have no choice except to surrender to Israel.
Considered a hawk by the Israeli government, Yoav Gallant, the minister of defense, has once again urged the IDF to track down and neutralize Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas.
How Blinken manages to stop an imminent ground assault by a more self-assured Israeli army in the Rafah area is still to be seen.
