US-proposed Gaza ceasefire deal: Israel, Hamas under pressure

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00:00It doesn't seem that it's much further advanced than when Joe Biden spoke on Friday.

00:05He made the offer to Hamas Thursday night.

00:08And we haven't heard a confirmation from either side.

00:12We've seen a lot of stepping around each other of the parties in Israel's coalition.

00:17Let's start with Israel.

00:19And what we have seen is that the right wing parties, the ultra right nationalist messianic

00:24parties, if you like, in this government say, no, they do not want a hostage deal.

00:29They want a total victory.

00:30But today we have heard from the second of two ultra orthodox parties.

00:35So that's two parties within Netanyahu's government who say they will vote in favor of a hostage

00:41deal.

00:42But what's being said around the prime minister is this, you know, he could arrange a hostage

00:48deal, could arrange a ceasefire, could have it passed by the government and then lose

00:54his majority because the two right wing parties will leave him.

00:58And it's interesting, this fight between the interests of the state of Israel and the

01:01interests of a political future for Benjamin Netanyahu, because an unexpected person weighed

01:08in on that today.

01:09And that's U.S. President Joe Biden, who in an interview with Time magazine actually said

01:15that it's quite plausible that people would believe that Benjamin Netanyahu was extending

01:20this war for his own political reasons.

01:23But of course, it isn't just Israel.

01:26It is also Hamas.

01:27And we haven't heard a direct response.

01:30When I say we, there hasn't been a direct response to this offer from the U.S. president

01:35or the announcement of the offer from the U.S. president, Israel's offer, actually.

01:40And yesterday they said they would go to Cairo to discuss it.

01:43But today we heard on Hamas television from one of their spokespeople saying, don't pressure

01:48us.

01:49The obstacle is Israel.

01:50It's not about us.

01:51So both sides still trying to seek a position.

01:55But intuitively, I would say to you that this much discussion about a deal, at the

02:00very least, is a good sign.

02:02And Iris, at the same time, take us to what's happening at the moment in the north of Israel.

02:07I understand there have been some large fires, wildfires this following Hezbollah rocket

02:15fire.

02:16What can you tell us about that?

02:18That's right.

02:19You know, the past two days in Israel, it's been extremely hot, you know, 38 degrees Celsius.

02:25And we've seen fires as a result of rocket fire into Israel.

02:29And the people, the firefighters who went to try and stop those fires found themselves

02:35under rocket fire as well.

02:36So it's extremely dangerous to try and deal with the fires.

02:40But it seems to Israelis that this is actually a metaphor for what's going on here.

02:45Wildfires not tended to.

02:47What we've seen is what began as a slow dance, if you like, between Hezbollah in Lebanon

02:53and Israel and the Israeli military has been increasing and escalating over time.

02:58So just to take the last two months, there were something like 700 rockets three months

03:04ago, 200 rockets, 750 rockets two months ago.

03:08And last month, there were a thousand rockets coming in to Israel from Lebanon.

03:13Israel has been carrying out more and more airstrikes against Hezbollah targets.

03:18You can see this escalation.

03:19And don't forget, Nadia, that on both sides of this border, tens of thousands of people

03:24in Lebanon and in northern Israel are no longer living in their homes.

03:28They're displaced within their own countries.

03:31So will this lead to an all out war of some kind larger than what we're seeing now?

03:36I have heard Israeli military officials saying that their big fear is that there won't be

03:41a deal in Gaza and Israel will have to leave without a deal to carry out or to complete

03:47some kind of military operation in the north of the country.

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