Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 11.02.2025
While Israel accepted the ceasefire deal, Netanyahu has characterized it as a limited agreement aimed at securing the release of as many Israeli captives as possible and not a plan to end the war. After Donald Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to seize control of Gaza, Netanyahu returned to Israel, he began to sabotage the already fragile agreement and attack the Palestinians in the West Bank.
“I’m returning now from a historic visit to Washington, with President Donald Trump, with officials in his administration, and with the heads of the Senate and Congress,” said Netanyahu, just a few hours after landing in Israel following his weeklong trip to the US. “This trip, and the conversations we held with the President of the United States, included additional incredible achievements that can guarantee the security of Israel for generations.”[i]
According to the terms of the ceasefire deal that went into effect on January 19, Israel and Hamas are to begin negotiations over the details of a second 42-day ceasefire stage no later than 16 days into stage one. The second stage envisions the release of all remaining Israeli captives in exchange for substantial numbers of Palestinians held by Israel, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the beginning of a permanent ceasefire that would pave the way for a massive multi-billion-dollar reconstruction of the Strip. However, those negotiations have not yet begun three weeks into the deal. Netanyahu initially refused to send a delegation to Doha, Qatar, for Phase 2 talks. Still, after intervention from the White House, he grudgingly dispatched a delegation empowered only to discuss ongoing technical details related to the first stage, not to negotiate the next stage.
When Netanyahu arrived in Israel, he said that Israel had made a strategic agreement with Trump and his special envoy to the Middle East, Witkoff, about the positions Israel would take in the next round of talks. Netanyahu said Monday he returned from Washington, D.C., with new plans for Gaza and that he and Trump see eye to eye on how to proceed. “For a full year, we’ve been told that on the ‘day after’ we need the PLO in the Strip, we need the PA [Palestinian Authority]. Trump came with a different vision, a much better one for the State of Israel.”[ii]
In the meeting at the Knesset, he declared, “President Trump presented a new and revolutionary vision for the day after Hamas so that a terrorist state will not be established again in Gaza. And I add, not only in Gaza — anywhere on our borders, “You said that Hamas cannot be defeated if there is no vision for the day after. You said that there is no choice but to bring back the Palestinian Authority, the same authority that pays murderers and portrays human monsters as heroes” [iii]
“In response, the spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, released a statement indicating that the group intends to postpone the release of the next round of Israeli captives as a result of Israeli violations of the ceasefire terms. The leadership of the resistance has monitored the enemy’s violations and failure to abide by the terms of the agreement during the past three weeks, from delaying the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip, targeting them with shelling and gunfire in various areas of the Strip, and not allowing relief supplies of all kinds to enter as agreed upon, while the resistance has implemented all its obligations.” [iv]
“Since the ceasefire officially went into effect on January 19, Israel has continued to carry out targeted attacks inside the Gaza Strip on an almost daily basis. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in such attacks over the past three weeks. On Sunday, Israeli forces fired on Palestinians in northern Gaza whom Israel said got too close to Israeli territory. At least three were killed. “Nobody approaches the perimeter and nobody returns to the perimeter,” Netanyahu said. “We will enforce it, and we will enforce it firmly. We expect Hamas to fulfill all its obligations—and this is one of them” [v]
“Hamas official Basem Naim told Al Jazeera that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “intentionally sabotaging” the ceasefire deal, continuing to block aid, kill Palestinians, and delay negotiations on phase two.” [vi]
Israel’s cabinet is scheduled to meet today (Tuesday), at which point Netanyahu says he will formalize Israel’s demands, which will be carried into the negotiations by the Israeli team. Among these, according to Israeli media reports, is the exiling of Hamas’s leadership and a total disarmament of its military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Demands that Hamas cannot accept and this will be an excuse to renew the war. Last month, Netanyahu told the Israeli cabinet he had received side letters from both the outgoing Biden administration and Trump’s team ensuring that Israel could resume the war in Gaza with minimal justification.
“Requiring the full exile of Hamas’s Gaza leadership and a total disarmament of its armed wing would effectively block the agreement from moving to a second phase and instead create a new status quo involving an indefinite Phase 1 where future prisoner exchanges would be done on an ad hoc basis with no larger guarantees about a permanent ceasefire or full withdrawal of Israeli forces. This is an extension of Netanyahu’s strategy throughout the war of presenting terms to Hamas he knows the group will reject so that Israel and the U.S. can accuse Hamas of obstruction. Such a configuration would allow Israel to continue, indefinitely, to conduct strikes inside the Gaza Strip under the auspices of enforcing the ceasefire while keeping Israeli troops inside southern Gaza, itself a contradiction of the agreement signed last month”.[vii]
A recent poll shows the Israeli public overwhelmingly wants Phase 2 to move forward so that all the hostages are released. At the same time, 80% of the Israelis also support Trump’s plan to empty Gaza of Palestinians, and only 3% see it as an immoral plan.
As the Trump administration has promoted its plan to seize and own Gaza, it has also suggested it would support Israel’s resumption of the war to eliminate Hamas. “Right now, the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, have had to go in and will continue to destroy Hamas if they do not honor the terms of this ceasefire,” said Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, Sunday on NBC.
Israel, of course, accuses Hamas of breaching the deal. “An Israeli negotiating team that returned early Monday from Qatar conveyed to mediators in Doha that Hamas’ conduct was endangering the agreement. Israeli officials insisted that Israel has upheld its commitments, including withdrawing from the Netzarim Corridor, opening the Rafah crossing, and repositioning its forces as required under the deal” [viii]
The Arab local ruling classes reject Trump’s plan.”King Abdullah of Jordan is scheduled to meet Trump on Tuesday at the White House, and meetings with Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are reportedly being worked out. “I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza,” Trump said Sunday. “As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it; other people may do it, through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back.
Egypt and Jordan have maintained that, despite Trump’s confident claims to the contrary, they will not accept the forced mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza into their countries. When asked about widespread condemnation among Arab nations of Trump’s Gaza plan, Waltz, the national security advisor, said, “Then come to the table with your plan if you don’t like his plan.”[ix]
The idea of removing Palestinians from Gaza is not new. Soon after October 7, the Biden administration embraced an Israeli plan to force Palestinians into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula under the auspices of a “humanitarian corridor.” The idea was based on an Israeli intelligence ministry proposal drafted a week after the Hamas-led attacks. Biden dispatched then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a tour of Washington’s closest Arab allies, who promptly rejected the plan. Biden subsequently announced that the U.S. would not move forward with a plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza. Instead, the administration ensured Israel could wage a bombing and ground campaign that internally displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza and left it in a state of destruction.
Trump has made no secret that he wants to preside over a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. However, the kingdom has publicly insisted that no such deal without an actual move to the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital. However, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald held a press conference in the Oval Office before sitting down for a private meeting, with Trump saying Saudi Arabia isn’t demanding a Palestinian state as a precondition for normalization with Israel.
This has thus far been a clear condition in public remarks by Riyadh. Asked if the Saudis are demanding a Palestinian state, Trump says, “No, they’re not.” [x]
Saudi Arabia rejected the claims, even when the Trump administration views a deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel as the most critical aspect of the Abraham Accords, which began during Trump’s first presidential term with normalization agreements reached with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
As Netanyahu is prepared for a renewed campaign to undermine the ceasefire agreement, Hamas said its delegation is ready for talks on implementing Phase 2. Hamas continues to push for the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences. Among these are Marwan Barghouti, the most popular political leader many believe would win a democratic election in Palestine, and Ahmad Sadaat, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Israel blocked the release of the two men in the first phase of the deal, but according to the source, both names are on the list for exchanges in the second phase. Israel may veto their release, but Hamas has insisted that if Israel wants all of its soldiers freed from captivity, Barghouti, Sadaat, and other Palestinian lifers must be freed.
Under the original terms of the deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 Israeli captives in the first 42-day phase. It has freed 16 of them and five Thai nationals not included in the deal. Of the 17 other Israelis slated for release, nine of them, including a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, are believed to be alive. By the end of Phase 1, roughly 60 Israeli captives will remain in Gaza.
The last three released POWs were very pale and lost weight, which reflects the starvation of the Gazans. Ignoring the fact that Israel used the weapon of starvation, the Zionist and Trump’s propaganda is that the Zionist prisoners are suffering from the holocaust.
“Donald Trump addressed the situation of the abductees in Gaza and said that if they are not all released by Saturday at noon, the ceasefire should be canceled, and “all hell should be let loose”. According to him, “If everyone is not released – without a drop, not one, two or three – then after that all hell will break loose. During a meeting with journalists, and when he signed presidential orders, Trump referred to the situation of the returned abductees, comparing it to the horrors of the Holocaust.”
“WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump suggested Monday that Israel end a ceasefire in Gaza and resume fighting if all remaining hostages are not freed by the end of the week, after the Hamas terror group said it was delaying the release of hostages slated for Saturday, placing fresh doubts on whether the fraught truce will hold.
Speaking to reporters, Trump conceded that Israel might want to override him on the ultimatum and the Saturday noon deadline, adding that he might talk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But expressed fears for the fates of those still being held captive, predicting that many would not survive if not released in the coming days.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock, I think it’s an appropriate time. I would say cancel it, all bets are off, and let hell break out. I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday,” Trump said” [xi]
“US President Donald Trump highlighted the emaciated condition of Israeli hostages recently released by Hamas. Comparing their appearances to Holocaust survivors, Trump warned that US patience with the situation was running out. He reaffirmed America’s commitment to removing Hamas from Gaza.” [xii]
Planning the renewal of the war on Gaza and doing it is much more complicated. First, the Zionist army is tired and suffered many losses. Secondly, Hamas has recruited thousands of new fighters; thirdly, the price of the war for Israel was already on December 23 billion dollars. Fourthly, the families of the Israeli prisoners put a lot of pressure to complete the deal. And most of the governments around the world oppose the Trump-Netanyahu plan.
To hell with Tramp-Netanyahu’s plan for a new ethnic cleansing of the Gazans.
Not only Netanyahu but Tramp and Biden as well are war criminals
In a new war between the Zionist monster and Hamas to support the military but not politically, Hamas!
For Palestine, red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.timesofisrael.com/back-from-dc-netanyahu-says-trumps-gaza-plan-much-better-for-israel-than-alternatives/
[ii] Ibid
[iii] https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-tells-knesset-he-has-returned-from-us-with-revolutionary-vision-for-gaza/
[iv] https://x.com/jeremyscahill/status/1888987005205270717
[v] https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQZTCnHVKbvfGGMWvJksLwZhGCR
[vi] https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/2/10/hamas-accuses-netanyahu-of-intentionally-sabotaging-ceasefire
[vii] https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/trump-netanyahu-sabotage-ceasefire-hamas-phase-2
[viii] https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hyfxaivyjx
[ix] https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/trump-netanyahu-sabotage-ceasefire-hamas-phase-2
[x] https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/alongside-netanyahu-trump-says-saudis-not-demanding-palestinian-state-for-normalization/
[xi]https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-says-gaza-ceasefire-should-end-if-all-hostages-not-released-by-noon-saturday/
[xii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePrrdEg_9ms