00:00Well, Israel's plans to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition for the very latest.
00:09Let's cross live now to Noga Tarnopolsky. She's our correspondent based in Jerusalem.
00:14Good to have you with us this evening, Noga.
00:17Not so long ago, we heard Benjamin Netanyahu's statement from the Israeli Prime Minister saying that Israel is to begin negotiations for a ceasefire.
00:26This amid large protests in Tel Aviv. What exactly can we read into those comments from Netanyahu, Noga?
00:37Good evening, Sharon. Well, the short version, the short answer to your question is Netanyahu is not accepting the ceasefire deal,
00:46which was accepted by Hamas earlier this week on the basis of the same prisoners for,
00:54Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages arrangement that Netanyahu himself had accepted way back in January.
01:01In this statement, he put out an extremely ambiguous statement tonight,
01:06which in effect simply ignores the ceasefire that was presented to Israel on Monday by the United States, Qatar and Doha.
01:15Instead of giving any Israeli response to this ceasefire, what he does is he says that he has just arrived at a cabinet meeting
01:24to approve military plans to, quote, take over Gaza City to defeat Hamas.
01:31And then he added, as if there were no current agreements on the table, he added,
01:38I have ordered, unclear whom, to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages
01:44and to bring an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel.
01:49Why is this a rejection of the current plan?
01:52Because the current ceasefire plan does not entail either an end to the war or the release of all Israeli hostages.
01:59To the contrary, following Netanyahu's own demands, it was a partial deal.
02:06It was, I'm speaking about it in the past tense, perhaps I've taken a step too far.
02:11It's a deal in which only 10 of the living Israeli hostages would be released,
02:17about half of the ones known to be alive,
02:20and that in which Israel would absolutely not declare an end to the war,
02:23but simply redeploy for a period of 60 days.
02:26That is what he requested before.
02:28So, in a way, Netanyahu is kind of calling the bluff of all of the mediating nations and of Hamas
02:34and saying, let's start negotiations again on my terms.
02:38That's what he means by terms acceptable to Israel.
02:41Those terms, as we know, include a permanent Israeli military takeover of Gaza,
02:47include the disarmament of Hamas,
02:50and other terms, for example, that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority
02:55will eventually take power in Gaza.
02:57All of these terms acceptable to Netanyahu,
03:01we know for months are not acceptable either to Hamas or to some of the mediators,
03:06like Egypt and Qatar,
03:08who do want to see the Palestinian Authority take over eventually in Gaza.
03:12So, for now, what we have is a no from Prime Minister Netanyahu,
03:18although, of course, there is a tiny possibility still available
03:21in which perhaps the mediating nations will say,
03:25OK, we'll take you up on it, send a negotiating team,
03:28and we'll start from zero.
03:30That possibility exists.
03:31But meanwhile, he is currently approving the plans to invade and take over Gaza City.
03:37And, Noga, how is all of this likely to be responded to by people there in Israel?
03:41We see Israeli ground forces already operating in a neighbourhood
03:44in the southern part of Gaza City.
03:47Also, are we any clearer about when they're going to launch a broader assault there?
03:55We're not at all clearer.
03:57Everything right now in Israel to do with the war
04:00is sort of bathed in this blanket of confusion.
04:03What we do have are the families,
04:06all of them, many of them,
04:08and thousands of other Israelis currently, again,
04:11protesting outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.
04:15And I think it's important to note
04:18the way in which Prime Minister Netanyahu
04:21has handcuffed these families.
04:23For months and months and months,
04:26they have been demanding a comprehensive deal,
04:29a deal that will free all of their loved ones,
04:33and a deal that would bring an end to the war.
04:35We saw just on Sunday night,
04:37almost half a million Israelis on the streets
04:39demanding an end to the war.
04:41Netanyahu kept mum this entire week.
04:44And now,
04:46he appears to be agreeing with them.
04:48It will be very difficult
04:49for the family members of hostages
04:51to come out and say,
04:52no, we don't want a comprehensive deal.
04:54On the other hand,
04:56he is rejecting a deal
04:57currently on the table and available
05:00that could have seen
05:01or could still see
05:02Israeli hostages released
05:04as early as this weekend.
05:06And that is what they have been begging for.
05:08So he has really manacled them in a way.
05:12And we have to see.
05:13I expect that there will be
05:14very large protests this weekend in Israel.
05:17But we have to see how
05:19our understanding of this
05:21enigmatic statement by the Prime Minister
05:23develops over the next few hours.
05:25Noga, thanks so much for analysing all of that.
05:28That is our correspondent
05:29based in Jerusalem,
05:30Noga Tanipolsky.
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