Israel will be at the negotiating table on August 15 after responding favorably to a call for dialogue issued on August 8 by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. For 10 months, the Hebrew state has been conducting a series of military operations in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the terrorist attack of October 7 – which took the lives of 1,198 people. According to AFP, “almost all of the 2.4 million inhabitants [NDLR : sur une superficie de 360 km²]” were ” moved and [souffrent] “food shortages.” In its latest report, dated August 12, the Hamas Health Ministry put the number of deaths caused by the Israeli maneuvers at 39,897.
Yet, despite this human toll, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not hesitate, the day after the call for the resumption of discussions, to write on his account X : “This is really not the time to fall into a dangerous trap where mediators would dictate a formula and impose on us an agreement of capitulation on the blood shed in this just war.” The publication of the far-right minister – leader of the political movement of Mafdal, the party of religious Zionism – provoked the ire of the American ally. John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council to the American presidency, denounced “scandalous” and “absurd” remarks, reports AFP. The American added that the United States would not let a few “extremists” derail the ceasefire project.
Regarding the latter, Hamas did not officially announce its participation in the August 15 meeting, but nevertheless demanded that the peace plan proposed by the Biden administration on May 31 be implemented. The Islamist movement said it accepted the plan in early July and now prefers to see it implemented by Israel “rather than conducting more negotiations or bringing new proposals.” The organization argues that continuing discussions “provides cover” for Israel’s continued bombing of Gaza.
Netanyahu’s Zealots
To John Kirby’s criticism, the Minister of Finance did not hesitate to respond that the ceasefire agreement was equivalent to an “act of surrender to Yahya Sinwar”, the new leader of Hamas, successor to Ismail Haniyeh – assassinated in Iran on July 31. Bezalel Smotrich was able to count on the support of another far-right minister sadly known for his acts of hysteria in Israeli society on Sunday. “The Prime Minister is making a big mistake by continuing to negotiate with Hamas”, declared Itamar Ben Gvir. The Minister of National Security, responsible for the police, also called for stopping “all aid to Gaza, including the supply of gasoline”, according to The Point.
A member of the Knesset from 2015 to 2023, Bezalel Smotrich, 44, is not new to the scene. In early August, the man who was designated as “the leader of the religious extreme right” by The Pointaffirmed – on the occasion of a conference – that: “No one in the world will let us starve two million people, although perhaps it is justified and moral to free the hostages [NDLR : 111 sont encore retenus prisonniers par le Hamas].”
This time, it was the UN that publicly expressed its concern. Through its spokesperson, Volker Türk – High Commissioner for Human Rights – who condemned “in the strongest terms these remarks, which incite hatred against innocent civilians”.
IDF threatened by the extreme right
The Pointrecalls that these media releases come “in the midst of the Sde Teiman and Beit Lid affair”. These are two military bases that house a place of detention for Palestinian prisoners, as well as the headquarters of military justice. They are at the heart of an affair in which nine Israeli reservists were arrested. All guards at the detention center, they are “accused” of an act of “sodomy by inserting a stick into the rectum” on one of the detainees.
On social media, right-wing extremists called for “to physically defend the incriminated soldiers,” provoking the arrival of an angry crowd on the scene. They overwhelmed the soldiers guarding Sde Teiman and “entered the base.” The violence against soldiers prompted Herzi Alevi, head of the General Staff, to come out of the woodwork, asking ministers “to condemn the coup by the extreme right.” He was not followed and was even “rebuked” by Benjamin Netanyahu, who said: “Don’t lecture us.”