ISRAEL MUST BE STOPPED NOW !, page-11375

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Israel News, Wednesday, 21.08.2024

■ HOSTAGES/CEASE-FIRE: PM Netanyahu is "once again sabotaging the talks" for a cease-fire/hostage deal with Hamas, a source involved in the negotiations told Haaretz, adding that "his statements indicating that Israel would not withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border, at a time when sensitive negotiations are underway for finding a solution there, only make it more difficult to find a solution, increasing suspicions, signaling to Hamas and the mediators that Netanyahu is uninterested in a deal."

• Israeli and U.S. officials believe that current cease-fire/hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas are "on the brink of collapsing," Politico reported, adding that the current proposal – which was "tailored to the demands of both Hamas and Israel" by the U.S., Egypt, Qatar, and Israel – was accepted by Israel, while Hamas said it will not accept it.
• An Egyptian official with direct knowledge of the negotiations told AP that "the Americans are offering promises, not guarantees. Hamas won't accept this," adding that the proposal doesn't clearly say Israel will withdraw its forces from two strategic corridors in Gaza, the Philadelphi route, which runs along the Egypt-Gaza border, and the Netzarim corridor which cuts east to west across the Strip, and that Israel offered to downsize its forces in Philadelphi, with "promises" to withdraw from the area. "This is not acceptable for us and of course for Hamas," he concluded.
• The Hostage Families Forum said that "the full and direct responsibility for the fate of the negotiations is on the prime minister. His incessant attempts to blame the negotiation teams, the mediators, the press, the hostages' families and even the hostages themselves are pulling the wool over the public's eyes and the entire world…If he is so successful at conducting negotiations, as he describes himself to be, he should fly out himself and act to return the hostages that were abandoned on his watch and for ten months since."
• Ditza Or, whose son Avinatan is held hostage by Hamas, suggested on national television that the sons of Israel's defense minister and army chief be exchanged for the remaining captives. Or is a member of the "Tikva" forum of hostage families that opposes the current truce proposal.
• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed ongoing efforts to prevent regional escalation and secure a cease-fire in Gaza with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, the State Department said.