Israel’s President Shakes Hands With Hamas’s Most Prominent Supporter

Even as war resumes in Gaza, Israelis say they will maintain efforts to free Hamas’s abductees in what they define as diplomacy under fire.With military activities again under way in Gaza, Lebanon, and Israel, President Herzog shook hands with Hamas’s most prominent supporter, Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Mr. Herzog was at Dubai for an environmental summit known as COP 28, but the unprecedented handshake while the Israel Defense Force pounded Gaza reverberated across the region. The war returned after a seven-day pause in which 110 Israeli hostages were released by Hamas. While not excluding the idea of a resumption of pauses, Israeli officials maintain that more pressure on Hamas’s leaders will force them to release more hostages. Secretary Blinken left Israel Friday morning after attempting to extend the cease-fire. Instead, war resumed during his stay in the country. It is “important to understand why the pause came to an end,” he said. “It came to an end because of Hamas. Hamas reneged on commitments it made.”Israel and Qatar, which is acting as Hamas’s proxy, had agreed that for each day of combat pause, 10 hostages would be released. Despite overnight negotiations regarding an extension, Hamas declined to give Israel a list of hostages to be released. As Friday’s 7 a.m. deadline neared, Hamas also fired a rocket.“In fact,” Mr. Blinken said, even before that, Hamas had “committed an atrocious terrorist attack in Jerusalem, killing three people and wounding others, including Americans.” On Friday, he added, “it began firing rockets before the pause ended.” The secretary’s one-day trip was marked by public spats with the Israeli government. As far as Washington is concerned, he told Israeli officials, it doesn’t have “months” to eradicate Hamas in Gaza. He also demanded a doubling of the number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza daily, and urged the IDF to reduce civilian casualties, even as Hamas uses them for its protection. “The American expectations are unrealistic,” a former national security council chief, Major General Giora Eiland, told Israel’s Channel 13. By putting so much emphasis on Gaza’s civilian population, “the war will be significantly extended,” he argued.It is possible to targeting rocket launchers, arms depots, and Hamas commanders, according to Mr. Eiland. Yet, starving the Strip of resources like fuel and even water would lead to a quicker collapse of Hamas and therefore exact fewer civilian casualties. To push back against Democrats who want to limit aid, the White House is publicly pressuring Israel over its war conduct, and is demanding it think of the day after the war. After President Biden said it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to “occupy Gaza,” Mr. Blinken was reportedly informed by Prime Minister Netanyahu Thursday that at the end of the war Israel expects to maintain a sliver inside the Strip to serve as a buffer zone. Meanwhile, among the 136 hostages that remain in the hands of Hamas, 17 are women and children, the IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Friday. The military will use “all means” to free all hostages, he added. He indicated that this includes both military and diplomatic methods. Qatar “confirms that negotiations between the two sides are continuing with the aim of returning to a pause,” Doha’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. Unlike Mr. Blinken, Qatar blames Israel for breaking the pause. While they don’t say so in public, Israelis believe that Qatar’s top goal is to preserve Hamas as sovereign in Gaza. Nevertheless, for now they maintain ties with Doha, hoping it would help with hostage releases.During the weeklong pause, Israel insisted that Hamas stick to agreements made with Qatari and Egyptian negotiators. When Hamas attempted to release fewer than 10 hostages a day, the top Israeli negotiator, Mossad Chief David Barnea, threatened to end the pause. Hamas relented each time — until Friday. On Thursday, Hamas said it could no longer find 10 women and children, Israeli press outlets reported. Instead, it called for negotiations over freeing men and soldiers in its hands in return for the release of top Hamas terrorists in Israeli prisons.Mr. Barnea reportedly balked, insisting that before talking about further agreements Hamas must fulfill its obligations under the current phase, which means the release of the remaining women and children it still holds. Apparently Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, decided to push back. On Friday, the IDF dropped leaflets in southern Gaza with detailed maps warning civilians of the areas it plans to attack and urging them to move out. For the first time since the start of the war, the air force hit major targets at Khan Yunis, the largest city in the south, where top Hamas commanders are believed to have escaped.That bombing “was a message to Sinwar, telling him what he should expect in the next few days,” a former IDF intelligence chief, Amos Yadlin, told Israel’s Channel 12 television.

Israel’s President Shakes Hands With Hamas’s Most Prominent Supporter

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