00:00I'd just like to ask you what your understanding is of where we are in the phased peace process.
00:07How close are we to entering phase two?
00:10Well, thank you for having me on your show.
00:12I mean, we're currently still obviously in phase one and it's being implemented.
00:17It's a conditional ceasefire.
00:19As you've seen, Hamas still not trusting the Israelis not to strike at them.
00:25At the same time, Israel is still suspicious of every movement Hamas does within its territories.
00:32And phase two is being implemented.
00:36There's a lot of discussions on the characteristics of the international stabilization force and their authorities and so forth.
00:47And you have the president, I mean, Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to the U.S. this month.
00:54And I think there will be a major, major discussions on on the parameters of phase two based on U.S.
01:03perhaps conditions and also Israeli conditions and how to merge these conditions together to be implemented sometime next year.
01:13Right. But when you look at the numbers and you see that since October the 10th, some 380 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.
01:20I mean, there are many who say this is a ceasefire in name only.
01:25What do you say to that?
01:26Well, it is a it is a conditional ceasefire from the Israeli perspective.
01:31It's obviously the the intents of the military operations are not the same like the one before the ceasefire.
01:39I mean, clearly, the operations has decreased.
01:42But yes, this is unfortunate.
01:44I mean, three, four hundred, I think we mentioned killed thus far during the ceasefire.
01:50Now, this is a something U.S. government administration is very concerned about.
01:56But at the same time, you look at Israel is looking at its own security interests.
02:05And unfortunately, Hamas and the and the Gaza population are intertwined.
02:12And Israel has a high tolerance of collateral damage.
02:16So that's why we're seeing that this unfortunate casualties.
02:21But but yes, those are you can look at them as a as a violation of ceasefire.
02:27But when it comes to security, either Hamas securing themselves or Israelis securing themselves,
02:33they perhaps do the same thing to protect their interests.
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