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Political analysts believe that Benjamin Netanyahu's government is not really interested in the issue of prisoners or civilian detainees in the Gaza Strip, and that it refuses to establish a humanitarian trucle for fear of being forced little by little to stop the war without achieving its goals, which it considers more important than everything.
According to Israeli affairs expert Muhannad Mustafa, the issue of prisoners and detainees is not a priority for the Israeli government, despite the media interest it shows in it, because the most important thing for it is to prevent any ceasefire at the present time.
According to Mustafa, Netanyahu's government fears that any humanitarian truce will lead to further truces and a complete halt to the war, while it has not achieved any of its declared goals, whether in terms of eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) or recovering prisoners and detainees through a military operation.
Mustafa believes Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant in particular are prioritizing military objectives because both men are acting out of political interests without looking at anything else.
But Mustafa believes that Israeli society understood this matter, and began to go out in demonstrations more because he no longer trusts the government - regarding this file - expressing his conviction that the coming days will witness more protests not only for the issue of prisoners and detainees, but also because of the exorbitant bill for the military operation, which no longer has clear real goals.
Political analyst Moeen Taher supports Mustafa's talk about the Netanyahu government's lack of interest in the file of prisoners and detainees, but believes that the internal Israeli rift has not reached the point of division over the war, because what happened on October 7 (Operation Al-Aqsa Flood), turned all Israelis into an army.
While Hamas is trying to conclude an exchange deal to temporarily stop the war to ease the pressure on the residents of the Strip and bring in aid and fuel, the Israeli side does not want to reach this point, according to Taher.
The political analyst believes that Netanyahu is well aware that Hamas has enough military prisoners to whitewash Israeli prisons anyway.
Therefore, Netanyahu does not want to complete any exchange deal, so as not to increase international pressure on him and ease Hamas, because everyone knows that military prisoners will not return without a deal that includes Palestinian security and political prisoners, according to him.
But the matter does not stop there, according to Mustafa, because Israel is living a military and a political dilemma, because it has raised the ceiling of its military goals – eliminating Hamas and repatriating prisoners and detainees – and has not achieved any of them within 40 days, and then the longer the war lasts, the greater the pressure on it internally and externally, and the decline in support for it.
Thus, Netanyahu is trying to evade the issue of any truce, refusing to bring in any aid without his consent and under his control, so that his strategic goal of strangling the population of Gaza and pushing them to migrate to the Sinai Peninsula is not affected.
The strange thing about this war, Mustafa says, is that Netanyahu wants to create a new type of humanitarian truce, which is a truce for a price, meaning that he wants to release a group of prisoners and detainees in exchange for every truce, without releasing any Palestinians.
Taher agrees with this proposition, stressing that what Israel is doing is putting pressure on the population, not Hamas, which is still resisting and throwing rockets, in addition to the fact that the war is still practically in the north regardless of the continuous bombardment of the south, he said.
According to the statements, Hamas "has two brigades in the northern region that are fighting the resistance so far, while at least three other brigades are still in the southern regions, meaning they have not yet entered the confrontation," al-Taher said.
Regarding Israel's failure to succumb to international pressure demanding the establishment of a truce and the introduction of aid, Taher said that "this reflects the state of arrogance experienced by Netanyahu, which will not be broken unless the outcome of the recent Arab-Islamic summit approved work to break the siege."
Al-Taher concluded that the opening of the Rafah crossing will never happen without the formation of convoys that include Arab and Muslim foreign ministers, United Nations officials, diplomatic missions and international organizations to break the siege, because Tel Aviv will not face the world alone, stressing that any talk about opening the crossing in another way means that the situation will remain as it is.
Source : Al Jazeera