On the eve of the visit of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a number of people in Israel once again demonstrated for a hostage agreement in the Gaza war. Since the mass protests last weekend, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government after the discovery of six hostage bodies, the number of participants in the daily demonstrations has decreased significantly. Netanyahu is adamant. There is no deal in sight, he told the US broadcaster Fox News. It remains to be seen what Baerbock can achieve in her talks with government representatives in Israel today.
Baerbock begins talks in Israel
Relatives of the hostages accuse Netanyahu’s government of sabotaging an agreement. “This is the last chance,” chanted the demonstrators in Tel Aviv in the evening. Baerbock plans to meet her colleague Israel Katz there in the morning. She then plans to speak to Defense Minister Joav Galant. Their talks are likely to focus on the faltering efforts of the mediators USA, Qatar and Egypt to achieve a ceasefire and the release of the hostages in Gaza. The US government announced on Wednesday that 90 percent of the agreement had been agreed.
However, Netanyahu made it clear again that he would stick to a permanent presence of Israeli troops in the so-called Philadelphia Corridor in southern Gaza. This is currently the main point of contention in the indirect negotiations. The Philadelphia Corridor is a strip of land about 14 kilometers long on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, whose control, according to Netanyahu, is intended to ensure that Hamas cannot smuggle weapons into the sealed coastal strip. It is a position that resonates with many Israelis, wrote the Wall Street Journal.
Report: Netanyahu unimpressed by protests
Two sentiments prevail in Israel: the desire for the remaining hostages held by Hamas to be released and distrust of Netanyahu. At the same time, many fear that an agreement with Hamas could lead to the terrorist organization regrouping and becoming stronger, the newspaper wrote. It cited a poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute, according to which 49 percent of Jewish Israelis believe that Israel should not give up control of the corridor, even if this comes at the cost of a hostage deal. 43 percent said Israel should do so.
The majority in Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing, ultranationalist and religious partners agree with his stance in the negotiations and do not see the protesters on the streets as their voters, wrote the Wall Street Journal. They know that most of the demonstrators may be the same ones who protested against the judicial reform plans last year. “They don’t care if it’s the majority,” Dahlia Scheindlin, an expert on public opinion in Israel, told the newspaper. Those who support the coalition government also agree with Netanyahu’s stance in Gaza. The opposite is true for those who are against Netanyahu anyway, wrote the US newspaper.
UN deplores humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip
While the wrangling on the domestic and foreign political stage continues, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains “more than catastrophic” according to the United Nations. More than a million Palestinians did not receive food rations through humanitarian channels in August, said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in New York. The number of meals cooked daily fell by 35 percent to 450,000 compared to July. He attributed the drastic decline in cooked meals partly to the multiple evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army.
As a result, at least 70 of 130 kitchens have been forced to either close or relocate. The United Nations partners also did not have sufficient food supplies to meet the needs in the central and southern Gaza Strip for the second month in a row, Dujarric complained.
UN spokesman: Journalists are not allowed to report on humanitarian situation
He cited ongoing hostilities, insecurity, damaged roads, breakdown of law and order and access restrictions as reasons for the critical shortage of humanitarian aid. He also pointed out that 11 months after the war began, international media representatives are still banned from entering the Gaza Strip to report on the effects of the war.
In the West Bank, Israel is also using “lethal war-like tactics, including air strikes” in the cities of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm as part of a large-scale anti-terror campaign. This has resulted in further deaths and injuries, and more roads and infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged, he said.
Baerbock: Outbreak of violence in the West Bank causes great concern
Foreign Minister Baerbock also said that the new outbreak of violence in the West Bank was causing the German government great concern. “Israel is the occupying power in the West Bank and is obliged under the Geneva Convention to maintain law and order rather than endanger it,” she said. “This explicitly includes protecting the population from attacks by violent, radical settlers.” Israel’s occupation includes the right and duty to take action against all perpetrators of violence and acts of terror. But she added: “You don’t fight terrorism by tearing up streets, destroying water pipes and power grids or even blocking access to hospitals.”
In Ramallah in the West Bank, Baerbock plans to meet the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, in the afternoon. In Baerbock’s view, the authority could play an important role in a post-war order in the Gaza Strip. At the start of her two-day trip to the Middle East, which first took her to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Baerbock had already called on Israel’s government in unusually clear terms to no longer close itself off to negotiations on a two-state solution.
This envisages two independent states side by side: Israel and a Palestinian state. “Those members of the Israeli government who question the two-state solution in word and deed are endangering Israel’s long-term security,” Baerbock explained.
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