Alex Sherman has only been able to sleep a few hours each night since his son Ron was taken away from an army base close to Gaza on October 7 by Hamas militants. Because Ron is a soldier, Sherman worries the\u00a019-year-old\u00a0will be among the hardest to negotiate out of Gaza. <\/p>\n
The retiree is desperate to be reunited with his son, but thinks fighting will resume before it happens. Hamas\u2019 political leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, \u201cwill keep Ron very close to him \u2013 my son is like a human shield,\u201d he predicted.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fear shared by many families of soldiers abducted by Hamas. <\/p>\n
Each weekend since the Hamas attacks, Sherman has taken part in a rally in Tel Aviv for the hostage families. This\u00a0swelled in size on\u00a0Saturday, as Israelis urged their government to work toward the release of all the hostages captured on October 7, and a potential extension of the current pause in fighting. <\/p>\n
Under the\u00a0truce agreement\u00a0between Israel and Hamas,\u00a0groups of\u00a0Israeli citizens and other nationals\u00a0have been\u00a0freed from Gaza every day since Friday,\u00a0while Israel has released\u00a0Palestinian women and children\u00a0detainees. <\/p>\n
Qatar\u2019s foreign ministry announced Monday that an agreement had been reached to extend the truce in Gaza by an additional two days. <\/p>\n
Israel had earlier indicated that it would be open to a daily extension for every 10 new hostages released by Hamas after the\u00a0four-day deal ends, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u00a0describing the possibility as\u00a0\u201cwelcome\u201d\u00a0when talking Sunday to US President Joe Biden. <\/p>\n
Hamas \ufeffhad also expressed interest in extending the truce\u00a0\u201cthrough serious efforts to increase the number of those released from imprisonment as stipulated in the humanitarian ceasefire agreement.\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a move which has the support of key nations, including the United States and Qatar, and\u00a0would provide further respite for civilians in Gaza who have\u00a0endured weeks of Israeli bombardment and a worsening humanitarian crisis. <\/p>\n
Another potential complication is that Hamas does not itself hold all the Israelis abducted into Gaza.\u00a0An estimated\u00a040 to 50 are thought to be held by\u00a0Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as other groups or individuals. <\/p>\n
And despite international calls for a ceasefire that would bring sustained\u00a0humanitarian relief to Gaza, the Israeli government has said it is committed to continuing the war\u00a0until its goal of eliminating Hamas is achieved. <\/p>\n
Eyal said the Israeli public is largely behind the government\u2019s war effort and is united\u00a0in a desire\u00a0to get as many hostages back as possible before \u201cthe second part of the war\u201d begins. <\/p>\n
Once the truce is over, Israel is expected to continue its ground\u00a0and air operation\u00a0\u2013 and has already indicated that it could expand its focus to the south of the enclave.\u00a0The Israel\u00a0Defense Forces (IDF)\u00a0dropped\u00a0leaflets\u00a0on parts of\u00a0southern Gaza in mid-November, warning communities east of Khan Younis\u00a0in southern Gaza\u00a0to \u201chead towards known shelters.\u201d\u00a0Large numbers of Gazans have already moved south, heeding earlier IDF warnings to leave the northern part of the strip. <\/p>\n
However, Eyal said Hamas would be unlikely to agree to such a move.\u00a0\u201cIsraeli cabinet ministers want that, the US wants that, Egypt wants that, and I presume many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would want it too, but I am not sure it is going to happen,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Critics say Israel\u2019s leaders have yet to provide a clear vision for post-war Gaza as they focus on eradicating Hamas from Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> <\/p>\n According to Eyal, there is \u201cconsensus\u201d within Israel that the war needs to end \u201cwith military control of the Gaza Strip.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIsrael cannot survive in this region with Hamas just across the border,\u201d Eyal\u00a0added.\u00a0A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, conducted November 19-20,\u00a0found that about half of all Jewish and Arab Israeli respondents believed the most important goal of Israel\u2019s war on Hamas was securing the release of all hostages in Gaza.\u00a0About a third of Jewish\u00a0respondents said toppling Hamas was the most important goal, with a tenth citing \u201crestoring deterrence\u201d and 3% giving\u00a0\u201cdistancing Gaza residents from Israel and creating a buffer zone,\u201d as\u00a0the most important aim. A majority of those surveyed\u00a0did\u00a0not believe the Israeli government has a clear\u00a0plan of action for when the fighting in Gaza ends. <\/p>\n Nevertheless, whenever Israel\u2019s war restarts, it will be amid mounting global diplomatic pressure to lessen the impact on civilians in Gaza, where the death toll has already surpassed 14,000, according to the enclave\u2019s Hamas-controlled interior ministry. <\/p>\n On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant that more\u00a0humanitarian aid needed to get into\u00a0Gaza \u2013 a logistical challenge given Israel\u2019s campaign of airstrikes \u2013 and \u201cthat civilians must have safe areas to receive aid across Gaza,\u00a0which will require deconfliction with the United Nations,\u201d according to a readout of the call. <\/p>\n \u201cIt will be very difficult for the Israeli military to plan ahead around these conditions,\u201d said Oren, of Haaretz. <\/p>\n \u201cThe real issue is that Israel has lost control of the (events) \u2013 it is up to others, from Sinwar to Biden, to decide the next course\u201d of action, he added. <\/p>\n Stuck in the middle are the families of the hostages, who tread a fine line between\u00a0maintaining pressure to secure their loved ones\u2019 release and\u00a0staying apolitical for the sake of the broad political church that supports and is part of the hostage family movement. <\/p>\n\n Alex Sherman has only been able to sleep a few hours each night since his son Ron was taken away from an army base close to Gaza on October 7 by Hamas militants. Because Ron is a soldier, Sherman worries the\u00a019-year-old\u00a0will be among the hardest to negotiate out of Gaza. The retiree is desperate to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}