Netanyahu Postpones Cabinet Nod on Ceasefire After Hamas Made New Demands
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday postponed a cabinet meeting expected to endorse the Gaza ceasefire deal after terrorist group Hamas pressed for additional last-minute demands.
Besides calling for the release of several of its top terrorists from Israeli prisons, Hamas is also demanding an Israeli withdrawal from the 9-mile-long Philadelphi Corridor, a major terrorist supply-line between Gaza and Egypt.
“Hamas made new last-minute demands regarding the Philadelphi corridor moments before they told Qatari mediators they agreed to the hostage-ceasefire deal,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
The six-week ceasefire was set to start on Sunday, potentially leading to the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for nearly 1,000 Palestinian terrorists, many of them serving life sentences for serious and murderous crimes.
Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages, including women, elderly, and toddlers, when they massacred their way through southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The terrorist group is still holding 94 hostages, only 60 of them believed to be alive.
In contrast to the self-congratulatory statements issued by U.S. and Arab negotiating teams, the deal is still being finalized, The Times of Israel reported Thursday:
Mossad chief David Barnea and the Israeli negotiating team are still in Doha finalizing the details of the ceasefire-hostage release deal, (…).While Qatar and the US, who brokered the deal, announced last night that it had been reached, Israel has insisted that small gaps remain, including a dispute over which Palestinian security prisoners will be freed. Netanyahu has yet to formally announce a deal or address the nation, saying he will only do so when it is finalized.
Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the cabinet endorsement in response to Hamas’s deceptive negotiation tactics, the Israeli news website YNET reported:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed Thursday morning Hamas had made last-minute demands to release life-sentenced prisoners as part of a deal to release hostages held in Gaza, which Israel vetoed as part of the agreement.“Hamas reneges on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last-minute concessions,” a statement read, explaining delays in convening the Cabinet, which was scheduled to meet on Thursday at 11 a.m. “The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.
This won’t be the first negotiated ceasefire Hamas will be jeopardizing to further its terrorist warfare against Israel. In November 2023, Hamas violated the previous hostages-for-terrorists deal, ambushing Israeli soldiers in Gaza and staging a deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
Hamas terrorist, supporters celebrate in Gaza streets
While many Western leaders and media commentators are selling the deal as a step towards peace in the region, Hamas used the respite to demonstrate support for its ongoing murderous jihad against Israel.
Hamas terror fighters and their followers were seen cheering the news across Gaza. Terrorists were seen brandishing their weapons amid Islamic war-cries of “Allahu Akbar.”
“Crowds of Gazans chanted and embraced on Wednesday as news spread that a ceasefire and hostage release deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas,” France’s AFP news agency reported. “As an ambulance squeezed through the crowd to reach the hospital, smiling men and women alike chanted “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is greatest” in Arabic, and waved the Palestinian flag.”
It is worth noting that vehicles marked as ambulances have often been used by Hamas to move its terror fighters in and out of combat zones.
“In one part of (Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza), the crowd cheered as a vehicle driven by Palestinian militants slowly wound through the streets, with fighters standing in its open sliding doors waving their AK-47s,” the AFP noted.
Iran hails deal as ‘victory’ for Hamas
Iran’s tyrant Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who’s regime finances and armes Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, welcomed the deal. “Today, the world realized that the patience of the people of Gaza and the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance,” Ayatollah claimed, adding that Israel had been “defeated.”
The regime’s military arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also hailed that deal, which it saw as the ‘victory’ for Hamas and a ‘defeat’ for Israel. Qatar’s state-run Al Jazeera reported:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have hailed the ceasefire deal as a “victory” for Palestinians and a “defeat” for Israel.“The end of the war and the imposition of a ceasefire … is a clear victory and a great victory for Palestine and a bigger defeat for the monstrous Zionist regime,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement.
Russia and China also hailed the deal. Beijing “hopes for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire through effective implementation of the deal,” the regime’s Xinhua news agency reported.
European and Western aid organizations are already planning to roll out a ‘development’ program for Gaza. Before the October 7 attacks, a substantial part of the so-called humanitarian aid had gone into building and financing Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure “Aid agencies plan major deployment once ceasefire comes into effect,” German state TV DW reported. “Several international NGOs are planning major operations for Sunday in anticipation of the ceasefire.”
Western, Arab leaders welcome the deal
After President Joe Biden and President-Elect Donald Trump both took credit for the deal, several European and Arab leaders supported the arrangement.
Reuters reported official Turkish, Qatari, and Egyptian responses. Qatar, Hamas’s biggest Arab backer, and Egypt played key roles in the ceasefire negotiations:
TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER HAKAN FIDANHe told reporters in Ankara the ceasefire deal was an important step for regional stability. Fidan also said Turkish efforts for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would continue.QATAR’S PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN AL THANIThe prime minister called for calm in the Gaza Strip between now and Jan. 19 when the ceasefire deal takes effect.EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT ABDEL FATTAH AL-SISIHe welcomed the Gaza ceasefire deal, according to a post on X, and stressed the importance of a fast delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The European Union and Western European leaders, too, were fully behind the deal, Germany’s DW TV reported:
Leaders across Europe welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Israel and the militant group Hamas.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the deal, saying it “brings hope to an entire region.””Both parties must fully implement this agreement as a stepping stone toward lasting stability in the region and a diplomatic resolution of the conflict,” she said.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the news, saying the agreement must be implemented “to the letter” and called for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and its allies in Gaza. (…)French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the importance of ensuring that the ceasefire deal holds, writing: “The agreement must be respected. The hostages, freed. The Gazans, rescued. A political solution must be found.” (…)British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, too, welcomed the deal.”After months of devastating bloodshed and countless lives lost, this is the long-overdue news that the Israeli and Palestinian people have desperately been waiting for,” Starmer said in a statement, adding that the international community’s attention should now turn to securing a “permanently better future for the Israeli and Palestinian people, grounded in a two-state solution.”
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