Israeli negotiators arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to continue cease-fire talks with Hamas. On Monday, the militant group said it had agreed to the terms of a cease-fire proposed by Qatari and Egyptian mediators – but Israel said that proposal was “very far from Israel’s core demands.”
The core differences are the same as they have been throughout negotiations: the length of the cease-fire and the number of hostages to be released. Israel doesn’t want to agree to a permanent cease-fire until all the hostages are released and Hamas is destroyed.
The latest talks got underway after Hamas shocked Israelis on Tuesday by announcing that not all of the 33 hostages it would release for the first phase of the deal were still alive. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from a small but vocal portion of Israelis who are protesting to demand his administration strike a deal to bring the hostages home.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military started pushing into Rafah on Monday, to the disdain of the Biden administration, which has urged Netanyahu against it. According to Eurasia Group’s US Director Clayton Allen, the Biden administration's delay of additional shipments of offensive precision-guided munitions “suggests the US is unsatisfied with Israeli efforts to address humanitarian concerns.”
But that’s not the only thing the White House is delaying for Israel. The Biden administration has delayed the release of a report on whether Israel violated US and international humanitarian law in Gaza. The report could muddy the waters for Biden by amplifying calls for him to curtail weapons shipments if Israel is found guilty.
“By delaying the report, the Biden administration can maintain control over decisions on weapons assistance,” says Allen, “supporting our view that overall aid is unlikely to be meaningfully curtailed.”
Biden also denounced the “ferocious surge” of antisemitism witnessed on college campuses and around the globe since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, reminding people at a Holocaust remembrance service on Tuesday of the vow to never forget. "They’re already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror, that it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, that it was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you, and we will not forget," he said.
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