By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

An Israeli official was quoted by Axios as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a deal that is impossible to get.

CIA Director William Burns met on Sunday in Rome with senior Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials to discuss a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, Axios reported, citing US and Israeli officials.

On Saturday, Israel delivered to the United States its updated proposal for the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, according to Axios.

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The report noted that “Netanyahu has toughened his position on the deal and added new demands, such as establishing a mechanism for monitoring the movement of weapons and Palestinian militants from southern Gaza to the north and maintaining Israeli control over the Gaza-Egypt border.”

Israeli negotiators, according to the American news website, “were not hopeful on Friday that the meeting in Rome would lead to a breakthrough and doubted that Biden’s pressure on Netanyahu had convinced the prime minister to soften some of his new tough demands in the updated Israeli proposal.”

Netanyahu discussed his new demands with US President Joe Biden on Thursday at the White House.

“But even after almost three hours of talks, Biden and his advisers are unsure whether Netanyahu truly wants a deal or is playing for time to keep his government from collapsing,” Axios reported, citing “a source with direct knowledge”.

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In this context, the meeting in Rome “isn’t expected to include detailed negotiations over the remaining gaps, but will focus mainly on the strategy for the way forward, a source with knowledge of the matter said,” the report highlighted. 

An Israeli official was quoted as saying that “Netanyahu wants a deal that is impossible to get. At the moment he isn’t willing to move and therefore we might be headed for a crisis in the negotiations rather than a deal”.

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza. 

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7. 

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,324 Palestinians have been killed, and 90,830 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’. 

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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children. 

 The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(The Palestine Chronicle)