Gaza permanent ceasefire 'questionable' - but possible 'within weeks, not a day', says senior Israeli official
Speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, the senior official said that a 60-day ceasefire "might" be possible within "a week, two weeks - not a day".
But on the chances of the ceasefire lasting beyond 60 days, the official said: "We will begin negotiations on a permanent settlement.
"But we achieve it? It's questionable, but Hamas will not be there."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to conclude a four-day visit to Washington later today.
There had been hope that a ceasefire could be announced during the trip. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that it's close.
Speaking at a briefing for a number of reporters, the Israeli official would not be drawn on any of the details of the negotiations over concerns that public disclosure could jeopardise their chances of success.
The major sticking point in the talks between and is the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.
The latest Israeli proposal, passed to Hamas last week, included a map showing the proposed IDF presence inside during the ceasefire.
Read more:
This was rejected by Hamas and by Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who reportedly told the Israelis that the redeployment map "looks like a Smotrich plan", a reference to the extreme-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.
The official repeated Israel's central stated war aims of getting the hostages back and eliminating Hamas. But in a hint of how hard it will be to reconcile the differences, the official was clear that no permanent ceasefire would be possible without the complete removal of Hamas.
"We will offer them a permanent ceasefire," he told Sky News. "If they agree. Fine. It's over.
"They lay down their arms, and we proceed [with the ceasefire]. If they don't, we'll proceed [with the war]."
On the status of the Israeli military inside Gaza, the official said: "We would want IDF in every square meter of Gaza, and then hand it over to someone..."
He added: "[We] don't want to govern Gaza... don't want to govern, but the first thing is, you have to defeat Hamas..."
The official said the Israeli government had "no territorial designs for Gaza".
"But [we] don't want Hamas there," he continued. "You have to finish the job... victory over Hamas. You cannot have victory if you don't clear out all the fighting forces.
"You have to go into every square inch unless you are not serious about victory. I am. We are going to defeat them. Those who do not disarm will die. Those who disarm will have a life."
On the future of Gaza, the official ruled out the possibility of a two-state solution "for the foreseeable future".
"They are not going to have a state in the foreseeable future as long as they cling to that idea of destroying our state. It doesn't make a difference if they are the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, it's just a difference of tactics."
Read more:
On the most controversial aspect of the Gaza conflict - the movement of the population - the official predicted that 60% of Palestinians would "choose to leave".
But he claimed that Israel would allow them to return once Hamas had been eliminated, adding: "It's not forcible eviction, it's not permanent eviction."
Critics of Israel's war in Gaza say that any removal of Palestinians from Gaza, even if given the appearance of being "voluntary," is in fact anything but, because the strip has been so comprehensively flattened.
Reacting to Israeli Defence Minister Katz's recent statement revealing a plan to move Palestinians into a "humanitarian city" in southern Gaza, and not let them out of that area, the official wouldn't be drawn, except to say: "As a permanent arrangement? Of course not."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
American Military News
16 minutes ago
- American Military News
Russia Launches More Deadly Air Attacks On Ukraine
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. Russia targeted Ukrainian cities with another barrage of overnight drone and missile attacks, killing at least two people and wounding at least 10 others, Ukrainian officials said on July 12. The new air attacks came ahead of what US President Donald Trump, who has been seeking to end the war in Ukraine since he took office in January but has run up against recalcitrance from President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, said would be a 'major statement on Russia' on July 14. Cities in western Ukraine bore the brunt of the latest overnight attacks, in which Ukraine's air force said it shot down 319 of the 597 drones and all but one of the 26 missiles launched by Russian forces. A 26-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man were killed and at least four other people injured as a result of drone strikes on Chernivtsi, near the Romanian border, regional military administration chief Ruslan Zaparanyuk said on Telegram. In Lviv, near the Polish border, six people were injured in drone attacks, including an 11-year-old boy, Maksym Kozytskiy, who holds the same position in the Lviv region, said on Telegram. Five were treated on site and one man was hospitalized. The western city of Lutsk, which had been hit hard when Ukrainian authorities said Russia launched a record of more than 700 drones and missiles three days earlier, was also targeted on July 12, but no injuries were reported. Three people were injured in Russian strikes on the eastern city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The Russian Defense Ministry said its strikes on Lviv, Lutsk, and Kharkiv targeted defense industry facilities. Russia claims it does not targeted civilians despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Russia has stepped up its missile and drone attacks this year, with numbers increasing every month since December, according to a monitoring group, and has intensified barrages on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks while also pressing forward on the front lines — albeit with massive casualties among its troops. 'The pace of Russia's aerial strikes demands swift decisions, and it can be curbed now by sanctions,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram on July 12. 'This war can only be stopped through strength,' said Zelenskiy, who also called for more air defense weapons from the West. 'We expect not just signals from our partners, but actions that will save lives.' Trump has voiced increasing frustration recently with Putin, who has rejected his efforts to secure an extendable 30-day cease-fire in the war, now in its 41st month since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine agreed to the 30-day cease-fire when Trump first proposed it in March, but Russia has attached conditions that experts say were meant to drag out talks while its forces continue their attacks. Two rounds of direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul, on May 16 and June 2, led to exchanges of prisoners and the remains of soldiers killed in the war but produced no progress toward peace. 'We get a lot of bullshit from Putin. It's very nice most of the time but meaningless,' Trump, who has spoken to Putin by phone six times since his inauguration on January 20, said on July 8. Trump said the United States is 'sending defensive weapons to Ukraine because Putin is not treating human beings right.' That marked a reversal of course days after a Pentagon announcement that delivery of some weapons to Ukraine would be halted over concerns that US stockpiles have declined too much. Two days later, Trump told US broadcaster NBC that the United States is 'sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons…and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons' to Ukraine. His promise of a major statement on July 14 has led to expectations that he might announce support for new sanctions against Russia, which he has so far refrained from imposing, or pledge more military aid to Ukraine. Trump has said he is studying a bill sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat-Connecticut) that would impose sanctions and tariffs on countries that support Russia's war effort in addition to targeting Russia's banking system. In the NBC interview on July 10, Trump called it 'a very major and very biting sanctions bill' and said he expected it to pass, but added: 'It's at my option if I want to use it.' Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had discussed 'a new and a different approach' to Ukraine peace efforts that Russia proposed when they met on July 10 on the sidelines of an ASEAN gathering in Kuala Lumpur. 'I don't want to oversell it, OK, but it was constructive,' Rubio said on July 11. 'We'll find out, but there are some things that we will potentially explore, and I relayed that to the president and our team last night.'
Hamilton Spectator
17 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
A year after Trump's near-assassination, friends and allies see some signs of a changed man
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was on stage at the Iowa State Fairgrounds earlier this month, kicking off the country's 250th anniversary celebration, when he heard what sounded like fireworks in the distance. 'Did I hear what I think I heard?' Trump remarked as he spoke from behind a wall of thick, bulletproof glass. 'Don't worry, it's only fireworks. I hope. Famous last words,' he quipped, drawing laughs and cheers. 'You always have to think positive,' he went on. 'I didn't like that sound, either.' The comments, just days before the first anniversary of Trump's near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, served as a stark reminder of the lingering impact of the day when a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally, grazing Trump's ear and killing one of his supporters in the crowd. The attack dramatically upended the 2024 campaign and launched a frenzied 10-day stretch that included Trump's triumphant arrival at the Republican National Convention with a bandaged ear, President Joe Biden's decision to abandon his reelection bid and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. One year after coming millimeters from a very different outcome, Trump, according to friends and aides, is still the same Trump. But they see signs, beyond being on higher alert on stage, that his brush with death did change him in some ways: He is more attentive and more grateful, they say, and speaks openly about how he believes he was saved by God to save the country and serve a second term. 'I think it's always in the back of his mind,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime friend and ally who was in close touch with Trump after the shooting and joined him that night in New Jersey after he was treated at a Pennsylvania hospital. 'He's still a rough and tumble guy, you know. He hasn't become a Zen Buddhist. But I think he is, I'll say this, more appreciative. He's more attentive to his friends,' he said, pointing to Trump sending him a message on his birthday earlier this week. Graham added: 'It's just a miracle he's not dead. He definitely was a man who believed he had a second lease on life.' Constant reminders While many who survive traumatic events try to block them from memory, Trump has instead surrounded himself with memorabilia commemorating one of the darkest episodes in modern political history. He's decorated the White House and his golf clubs with art pieces depicting the moment after the shooting when he stood up, thrust his fist dramatically in the air and chanted, 'Fight, fight, fight!' A painting of the scene now hangs prominently in the foyer of the White House State Floor near the staircase to the president's residence. Earlier this year, he began displaying a bronze sculpture of the tableau in the Oval Office on a side table next to the Resolute Desk. And while he said in his speech at the Republican convention that he would only talk about what had happened once, he often shares the story of how he turned his head at just the right moment to show off his 'all-time favorite chart in history' of southern border crossings that he credits for saving his life . During a press conference in the White House briefing room last month, he acknowledged lingering physical effects from the shooting. 'I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while,' he said, gesturing to his ear. 'But you know what, that's OK. This is a dangerous business. What I do is a dangerous business.' Trump will spend Sunday's anniversary attending the FIFA Club World Cup soccer final in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Crediting divine intervention Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who as his then-campaign chief was with him at the rally, said in a podcast interview released last week that Trump walked away from the shooting believing he had been spared for a reason. 'I would say I think he believes that he was saved. I do. And he would never — even if he thought it before, I don't think he would have admitted it. And he will now,' she told 'Pod Force One.' She, too credited divine intervention. The chart, she noted, 'was always the last chart in the rotation. And it was always on the other side. So to have him ask for that chart eight minutes in, and to have it come on the side that is opposite, caused him to look in a different direction and lift his head just a little because it was higher. And that just doesn't happen because it happened. It happened because, I believe, God wanted him to live.' As a result, she said, when Trump says things that 'are perfunctory — every president says 'God bless America' — well, it's more profound with him now, and it's more personal.' She also credited the attack with helping change public perceptions of Trump during the campaign. 'For the American public to see a person who was such a fighter as he was that day, I think, as awful and tragic as it might have been, it turned out to be something that showed people his character. And that's helpful,' she said. 'You know, I have an obligation to do a good job, I feel, because I was really saved,' Trump told Fox News Friday. 'I owe a lot. And I think — I hope — the reason I was saved was to save our country.' Roger Stone, a longtime friend and informal adviser, noted that Trump has had other brushes with death, including a last-minute decision not to board a helicopter to Atlantic City that crashed in 1989 and another near-assassination two months after Butler when U.S. Secret Service agents spotted a man pointing a rifle through the fence near where Trump was golfing. Stone said he's found the president 'to be more serene and more determined after the attempt on his life' in Butler. 'He told me directly that he believed he was spared by God for the purpose of restoring the nation to greatness, and that he believes deeply that he is protected now by the Lord,' he said. Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, agreed. 'I think for people who know the president, it is commonly believed that it changed him. I mean, how could it not? Imagine if you were who he was and if you don't turn your head at that instant,' he said. 'He knew he was lucky to be alive.' Given how close Trump came to a very different outcome, Reed said, 'it's hard not to feel on some level that the hand of providence protected him for some greater purpose. And there are people that I've talked to who said they were confident that he would win for that reason. That there must have been a reason.' ___ Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield contributed to this report from Rome. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Washington Post
18 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump's sudden shifts make his policies baffling to countries trying to negotiate lower tariffs
WASHINGTON — In the past week, President Donald Trump has managed to make his erratic trade policies even more baffling to countries desperate to negotiate an escape from his wrath. Doubling down on his trade wars, Trump is threatening to raise taxes on many goods from Canada, hike his universal tariff on imports from around the world and punish Brazil for prosecuting his friend, the country's former president. Former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler said that Trump's recent moves 'underscore the growing unpredictability, incoherence and assertiveness'' of his trade policies. 'It's hard for trading partners to know where they stand with Trump on any given day and what more may be coming their way when least expected,'' said Cutler, now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. On Thursday, the president escalated a conflict he started with America's second-biggest trading partner and longstanding ally, raising the tariff -- effectively a tax — on many Canadian imports to 35% effective Aug. 1. The sudden announcement, revealed in a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, came despite Carney's push to reach a trade deal with the United States by July 21. And it followed a big concession by Canada: On June 29, it had agreed to drop a digital services tax that Trump considered unfair to U.S. tech giants. Canada is far from the only target. In an interview Thursday with NBC News Trump suggested that he plans to raise his 'baseline'' tariff on most imports from an already-high 10% to as much as 20%. Trump sees the baseline tariffs as a way to finance the budget-busting tax cuts in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'' he signed into law July 4. Those tariff threats came after his extraordinary decision Wednesday to impose a 50% import tax on Brazil mainly because he didn't like the way it was treating former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial for trying to overturn his electoral defeat in 2022. In his letter to current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Trump also incorrectly claimed that Brazilian trade barriers had caused 'unsustainable Trade Deficits against the United States.'' In fact, U.S. exports to Brazil have exceeded imports for 18 straight years, including a $29 billion surplus last year. For some, Trump's action against Brazil indicates he's trying to exert influence over more than trade. 'Trump seems to view tariffs as an instrument to influence not just other countries' trade and economic policies but even their domestic legal and political matters,' said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University. Trump's faith in the economic superpowers of tariffs is unshaken even though they so far have proven largely ineffective in bullying other countries to cut deals. On April 2, Trump announced the 10% baseline tariffs and larger 'reciprocal'' tariffs – up to 50% -- on dozens of countries with which the United States runs trade deficits. But responding to a rout in global financial markets, he quickly suspended the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to give countries a chance to negotiate. The administration promised '90 deals in 90 days'' but got only two – with the United Kingdom and Vietnam -- before the deadline ran out Wednesday. Rather than reinstituting the reciprocal tariffs, Trump sent letters to 23 countries saying he'll impose levies ranging from 20% on the Philippines to the 50% on Brazil Aug. 1 if they couldn't reach an agreement. Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was not surprised that Trump needed more time to press U.S. trading partners to do more to open their markets to U.S. exports — though another three weeks is unlikely to be enough time to reach substantive agreements. 'For each of these countries, they have their own domestic challenges about what they can and can't offer,'' he said. 'There's a reason why that market access hasn't been granted before ... they have domestic political constituencies that argue to keep protection in place. And those just aren't problems that can easily be solved in a matter of weeks.'' Malaysia, for instance, has 'specific red lines'' it will not cross, Trade Minister Zafrul Aziz said Wednesday, including U.S. demands involving government contracts, halal certification, medical standards and a digital tax. But Malaysia has pledged to buy 30 Boeing planes and offered other concessions involving semiconductors and technology. 'It has to be fair,' he said. 'If the deal does not benefit Malaysia, we should not have a deal.'' Still, the United States' $30 trillion economy and free-spending consumers give Trump considerable leverage, especially over countries that depend on trade. 'These countries need the United States,'' said Matthew Goodman, director of the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Geoeconomic Studies. 'They need our market.'' Thailand, facing the threat of a 36% Trump tariff Aug. 1, is continuing to push for a deal and has offered to open its market to more U.S. farm, energy and industrial products. Trump said Vietnam gave U.S. companies duty-free access to its market while agreeing to a 20% U.S. tariff on its exports — though details of the deal have not been released. 'The Vietnam deal was fantastic,'' Stephen Miran, chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, crowed last Sunday on ABC News' 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos.'' 'It's extremely one-sided.'' Other countries 'can't afford to walk away,'' said Goodman, former director for international economics on the National Security Council. 'But they're going to be increasingly unhappy and resistant to the most over-the-top requests.'' Sometimes there's a backlash against U.S. bullying. Carney's Liberal party, for example, won a come-from-behind election victory in April because he stood up to Trump's pressure. And countries are beginning to look for alternatives to economic reliance on the United States. Canada is negotiating a trade pact with Southeast Asian countries, some of which are also moving closer to China. Foreign governments might also simply hope to outlast Trump, who has shown a willingness to declare victory after signing 'framework'' agreements such as one with China that leave the toughest issues for future negotiations. 'For Trump, the squeeze is more important than the juice,' said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official now at the Center of Strategic and International Studies. 'What's important to him is winning – the public, visible appearance of winning. And what he wins is less important. 'So the trick for these countries becomes: 'How do we let him win in a way that allows us to make the least damaging concessions?'' ____ Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this story.
