Over the course of a few hours, the news from the Middle East came into the White House Situation Room fast and furious. Officials rushed to work out the truth.
Over the course of a few hours, the news from the Middle East came into the White House Situation Room fast and furious.
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on buildings near the separating wall between Egypt and Rafah.In fact, Hamas did not “accept” a ceasefire deal so much as make a counteroffer to the proposal on the table previously blessed by the United States and Israel – a counteroffer that was not itself deemed acceptable but a sign of progress.
The past two weeks have been as intense and suspenseful diplomatically as any since Hamas mounted a major terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, killing an estimated 1200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. After months of stalemated talks, Israel came back on April 26 with a proposal that US officials believed changed the dynamics and offered a serious chance for agreement.
During the six-week ceasefire, the two sides would then work out plans for a second phase, which would involve another 42-day halt to hostilities and the release of more hostages. In this phase, the hostages to be released would include Israeli soldiers, a category of captives that Hamas has always been more resistant to giving up. To get over that hurdle, the Israelis agreed to release a larger ratio of Palestinian prisoners for each hostage returned home.
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