Reports that Qatar, Egypt are trying to broker
a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas • U.N. Security Council calls for
a cease-fire in a press statement • U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
calls Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to discuss the situation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
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Photo credit: Haim Tzach / GPO  |
As Operation Protective Edge enters its sixth
day, world leaders are upping pressure for a cease-fire between Israel
and the Hamas terrorist organization.
Following U.S. President Barack Obama's call
for a cease-fire on Thursday, intelligence heads in Turkey and Qatar
have also offered to help reach a cease-fire agreement, according to a
Channel 2 report.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said, "If they
[Hamas] want a truce, it will be on our terms. If not, we will continue
to crush them."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has
yet to reveal information about possible cease-fire negotiations,
however, according to the report, the Israeli government rejected the
Turkish offer due to the country's intelligence relationship with Iran,
and is still considering the Qatari offer.
An official in Jerusalem responded to the
reports, saying that Israel's goal is to restore calm and that "we will
achieve calm through either military or diplomatic means."
A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said
over the weekend that "there are negotiations. In our experience, there
are many different ways to end the violence.
"The important thing, in my opinion, is not a
paper that outlines agreements, but rather the other side's
understanding that there is a very capable, very effective defense
system facing them, that their rocket fire is hopeless and that there is
a high price to be paid for their violence."
Arab media outlets quoted over the weekend
Hamas officials confirming that Egypt and Qatar are working to broker a
truce between the sides. According to the officials, Hamas is refusing
to discuss a cease-fire framework based on the agreements reached during
Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, as long as Israel does not
immediately stop attacking Gaza.
At the same time, in Ramallah, officials
stressed that a relative drop in Hamas rocket fire was over the weekend
was due to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' diplomatic
efforts with Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders.
An official in Abbas' office told Israel Hayom
that "Abbas asked the leaders to give a chance to his diplomatic
efforts at the United Nations and with other Arab countries."
U.S. swings into high gear
Shortly after Obama's phone call with
Netanyahu on Thursday, during which he condemned Hamas' rocket fire,
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, "There are a number of
relationships the United States has that we are willing to leverage in
the region to try to bring about an end to the rocket fire that's
originating in Gaza and, as we saw this morning, in Lebanon.
"We are interested in taking the kinds of
steps that we did about a year and a half ago in November of 2012 to
facilitate a cease-fire and to try to get this situation back on the
path of de-escalation."
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called
Ya'alon and expressed concerns about the possibility of an escalation in
violence between Israel and Hamas.
"We made it clear, both President Obama last
night, as well as in my conversation with Minister Ya'alon, that we want
to do everything we can to help stop what's going on and encourage all
sides to not escalate and not let these hostilities get out of control
any more than they are," Hagel said after the phone call.
At the U.N., an attempt made by Arab countries
to have Israel officially condemned was thwarted by the United States
and European countries. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council issued a
statement calling for a cease-fire.
"The Security Council members called for
de-escalation of the situation, restoration of calm, and reinstitution
of the November 2012 cease-fire," the 15-member body said in the
statement.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
is expected to meet with his counterparts from Britain, France and
Germany, among others, on the sidelines of the nuclear talks between the
world powers and Iran in Vienna to discuss the ongoing violence between
Israel and Hamas.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met with
Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair in Cairo on Saturday, and both of them
called for a de-escalation of the violence.
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