US envoys will try this week to maintain the precarious ceasefire in Gaza, violated daily by Israelalso this Monday; The Israeli army has once again killed alleged “terrorists” in the south of the Strip, arguing that they had crossed a demarcation line on the ground and represented “a threat”, while Al Jazeera points out that artillery fire has fallen again on Deir al Balah, in the center of the enclave.
After a weekend with dozens of Palestinian deaths in Israeli bombings, the US envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Israel today accompanied by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the president, Donald Trump, with the aim of supervising the application of the ceasefire prior to the visit on Tuesday of the vice president, JD Vance.
In an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Kushner revealed that, according to Trump, “the Israelis were getting a little out of control” before the ceasefire agreement. “It was time to be very strong and prevent them from continuing to do things that were not going to benefit them in the long term,” he said.
Trump himself spoke out over the weekend about the disarmament of Hamas, one of the thorniest parts of the peace plan, following the skirmishes in the strip between members of the group and militias protected by Israel.
“They are being quite unruly,” the president estimated from the presidential plane, adding that the US intends to ensure that the organization’s behavior is “very peaceful,” while pointing out that there may be rebels in the Strip who are opposing the leadership’s orders to respect the truce.
“Be that as it may, we are going to approach it correctly, harshly, but correctly,” said Trump, who has not censured Israeli behavior. Hamas has accused Israel of seeking pretexts to violate the ceasefire.
Vice President Vance also addressed the issue. “We still do not have the security infrastructure to confirm that Hamas is disarming,” he admitted in comments to the press at a military base in Washington. He has also said that any progress that occurs will be “in fits and starts,” at best.
