Tel Aviv — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was under increasing pressure Monday from all sides throughout his country’s ongoing crisis. was against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s own cabinet have threatened stop supporting his coalition government if he agrees to a ceasefire deal with Hamas, but the United States and many Israelis are pressing him to reach a deal to bring the remaining hostages home from Gaza and end the devastating war in the Palestinian territory. .
Those calls for a ceasefire received further impetus with the publication, over the weekend, of another Hamas propaganda video showing two hostages.including Israeli-American citizen Keith Seigel, who is still alive.
The new week has brought a flurry of diplomatic activity in the region, including a visit from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a last attempt to secure a ceasefire agreement ahead of a possible Israeli ground operation in Gaza City, in southern Gaza. Rafah, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge in desperate conditions.
A Hamas delegation was expected to deliver the group’s response on Monday to the latest proposal for a long-sought truth deal and hostage release.
Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia to meet with his counterparts in the Gulf region, Blinken said on Monday that a ceasefire would be the most effective way to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But he stressed that civilians caught in the middle of war cannot afford to wait for that to happen, and urged Israel to “take the necessary measures to meet the needs of civilians.”
Blinken acknowledged “measurable progress in recent weeks, including the opening of new (border) crossings and increased volumes of aid delivery to and within Gaza, and the construction of the US maritime corridor, which will open in the coming weeks.” . “It’s not enough,” he said.
He said President Biden insisted that Israel should take more specific, concrete and measurable steps to better address humanitarian suffering, civilian harm and the safety of aid workers in Gaza, including in his most recent call with Netanyahu on Sunday.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 34,000 people (mostly women and children) have died in the enclave since the war began. It was sparked by the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 1. 7 against Israel, in which the group killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 more hostage.
Saeed Qaq/Anadolu/Getty
United Nations humanitarian agencies have also acknowledged an increase in aid reaching Gaza, but continue to warn that tens of thousands of people face possible famine conditions in the territory, and the increase in aid has not been enough to prevent it. .
The challenge for Netanyahu has been weighing the fate of some 130 remaining hostages – including five US citizens believed to still be alive – and growing pressure over the war’s impact on Palestinian civilians, against his stated mission to destroy to Hamas. He has said that a raid on Rafah is the only way to achieve that goal, as Hamas still has combat units hidden in the city.
However, calls from the families of the remaining captives for a deal have grown louder and angrier. They have led regular, massive demonstrations in the streets of Israel, accusing Netanyahu of failing the hostages. More than once protests ended in clashes with the police.
There is also pressure for a ceasefire from college campuses in the US —Israel’s most important ally and benefactor—and the parallel protests taking shape on European university campuses. The anti-war demonstrations have not gone unnoticed by displaced Palestinian students in Rafah, whose education came to an abrupt halt on October 1. 7.
“What gives us a glimmer of hope is that we were not left alone,” student Renad Anaan told CBS News at a camp for displaced people, “and that applies to the efforts made by students at universities in the United States “.
“I salute them, the American university students who are protesting against the Netanyahu government and the American government. They are very kind and I admire them for that,” said Fida Afifi, whose university course in Gaza City was interrupted by the war. He told CBS News that he was “calling on the students of the world to rise up against the government.”
Israel has made a concerted effort in recent days to show that it is stepping up aid distribution in Gaza, and the IDF released a video over the weekend showing the floating dock being built by the US military off the Mediterranean coast of Envlave. Officials have said it will be completed by early May, creating another new route for aid to reach people who desperately need it.
There is hope that a ceasefire agreement, or even a move towards one, could delay or even thwart plans for Netanyahu’s promised invasion of Rafah. But in the meantime, the threat of a ground war in the populous city continues to weigh on the students and tens of thousands of civilians taking refuge in Rafah.
Much of the rest of Gaza lies in ruins: destruction on a scale that has left entire towns and cities uninhabitable.
No place is really safe. Even in Rafah, the Israel Defense Forces carry out air and missile strikes on a daily basis. On Monday morning, amid fresh talks about a possible ceasefire, three new attacks occurred in the city. At least five more children were among the dead, according to health officials in Hamas-controlled territory.
Both humanitarian airdrops and Israeli bombing continued over the weekend, and Palestinians barely surviving in the tent city that has been built in and around Rafah never know if the planes flying overhead They carry a threat of death or the promise of life-saving help.
CBS News’ Tucker Reals contributed to this report.