now the US President Joe Biden says that
he is hopeful a ceasefire deal for Gaza
can be reached by next week talks are
happening in Qatar right now their aim
is to secure a pause in the fighting in
exchange for the release of Israeli
hostages who were taken during the Hamas
Terror attacks on October the 7th
speaking to reporters in New York
President Biden said an agreement was
Within Reach well I hope by the the
beginning of the weekend I mean the end
of the weekend
at least my my my National Security
advisor tells me that we're close we're
close it's not done yet and My Hope Is
by next Monday we'll have a
ceasefire okay
thank but a Hamas official speaking to
the Reuters news agency says Biden's
comments don't match the situation on
the ground he said there are still gaps
that need to be bridged before a
ceasefire agreement can be reached
Israel says any letup in the fighting
will only be temporary and that ground
operations in Rafa are the only way to
eliminate Hamas fighters from suspected
positions there the Israeli military has
reportedly shown Israel's war cabinet
its plan for evacuating civilians from
combat areas but no details have been
released on where those displaced people
could actually
go these women and children are among
the
victims after an Israeli air strike hit
a building in southern
Gaza some survivors are still looking
for their loved
ones they were targeted with a
missile there was a huge explosion and
the building collapsed we recovered
people including women and a child who
was 7 years old there are also injured
people including my
sons Israel has been carrying out air
strikes in Rafa for for weeks despite
some 1.4 million Palestinians seeking
safety in the
city there we go Israel says its ground
invasion of Rafa is inevitable it's
convinced Hamas leaders are hiding there
and that it's necessary to push into
Rafa to achieve its goal of eliminating
the group but International
organizations warn such an advance would
have catastrophic implications for
civilians there all the Israeli
offensive on the city would not only be
terrifying for more than a million
Palestinian civilians Sheltering there
it would put the final nail in the
coffin of our Aid
programs according to un figures the
amount of Aid delivered in recent weeks
has decreased mainly due to the regular
closures of Crossing points and military
operations the drop in Aid comes amid a
deepening hunger crisis across the
territory and
my son is supposed to have milk as a
newborn be it natural milk or formula
but I wasn't able to get him milk
because there's no milk in Gaza and the
circumstances are tough there's no milk
and no food in
Gaza Jordan parachuted much needed
supplies into Gaza on Monday but many
fear the aid system could collapse
entirely if Israel ground troops entered
the last limited refuge for Palestinians
in
Gaza our Middle East analyst shie
rosanas is here in the studio with me hi
hi shaie so um shaie
um we're seeing quite a lot of movement
here aren't we in terms of sort of talk
about the the ceasefire um but there are
a lot of details still in the air aren't
there there are many um and we've he the
qataris just talking this morning saying
um there's nothing that's been finalized
yet between Hamas and Israel we know
that Hamas spokesperson also said
there's still many gaps that need to be
bridged and one of the key issues is how
do we even what is it on the table uh
we're talking about a ceasefire or a
truce but Hamas Demands a a stop to
fighting he wants Israel to make a
commitment that it's not going to resume
uh ground operations and gods of
something Israel is refusing to do so
this is still very much the heart of the
matter and still disputed um and of
course there's all the back and forth
regards to how many prisoners will be
released in exchange to how many
hostages these are more of the Minor
Details but still there's a lot still to
be worked through okay and meanwhile
Israel seems absolutely intent on
sticking uh to its plan to start this
sort of full scale offensive in Rafa
despite the um you know the growing
chorus of international criticism well
Israel wants to be seen like that at
least you know for Nan it's important to
send that message that the IDF is ready
and can go on into the next phase of the
ground operation meaning going into Rafa
because he feels that that's his only
leverage if he wants to get anything uh
for the Hamas to to agree to concessions
he feel like Rafa is the one thing that
he has still that he can use and
therefore he tries to portray this this
image of this is what we're do doing
next we know however that technically
there's still many stages to be uh
before that is even possible there's
more than one million uh Palestinians
who found refuge in Gaza from all other
parts of of the Gaza Strip and they need
to be evicted this is something Israel
has committed to so that would be the
first step before anything else happens
okay Shany stay with us for just a
moment because we're going to get an
update on uh Rafa now with fighting so
close to the Egyptian border it is
testing Israel's friendly relations with
its neighbor take a
look right on the border with Egypt it's
Rafa it's crammed with around 1.4
million people many displaced from other
parts of the Gaza
Strip conditions there are dire with
shortages of food and
water Egypt has warned against an
Israeli Grand defense of there saying it
would result in more civilian
casualties Egypt has had peaceful
relations with Israel since a peace
treaty was signed between the two
countries in
1979 but Egyptian president abdal fat
Ali has been vocal in his condemnation
of is's operations in its war against
Hamas with displaced gazans having
nowhere else to go it could lead to
intense pressure on them to escape the
Enclave into Egypt Sinai Peninsula a
situation Cairo wants to avoid Egypt
along with several other Arab countries
fear Israel wouldn't allow them to
return under the terms of the 1979 Peace
Treaty the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza
border are a demilitarized zone
since the October 7th attacks Egypt has
been beefing up border security with
more troops at the Gaza Frontier with
Israeli
consent Egypt also appears to be
building a Fortified Area there Cairo
has for the past decade already been
creating a massive buffer zone as part
of its security coordination with Israel
part of that has been the destruction of
tunnels from its territory into Gaza
which were used for
smuggling another issue testing
relations between the two countries is a
narrow demilitarized strip of land that
separates Egypt and Gaza known as the
Philadelphia
Corridor a suggestion by Israeli Prime
Minister Benyamin Netanyahu that he
wanted Israel to take control of the
corridor has angered
Cairo despite the current tense
relations between Egypt and Israel any
attempt by Cairo to walk away from its
peace Accord with Israel could prove
very costly Egypt's economy is
struggling and it would risk losing the
billions of dollars of us Aid it
receives as part of the 1979
treaty our Middle East analyst shanie
rosanis is still here with me shaie tell
us what is it that makes Rafa so uh
important especially for Egypt well Rafa
is a city that is divided for many years
the majority of which isn't a pal part
of Gaza a little part of it is in um is
in Egypt and for the Egyptian president
right from the start this was the red
line he you know there's a a big
Crossing uh of the Border there and any
breach um into uh Egyptian territory
that's that's a red Cline that the the
president has said the Assisi president
said he's not willing to to see
happening there's a fear that it means
that the ter you know knowing this
region and the Dynamics in it anything
that is temporary can end up very much
being you know a permanent solution for
the Palestinian uh problem which is
something something the Egyptians do not
want to see happening because they're
afraid that would be you know clearing
out the mess for Israel instead of of
Israel itself um we know that the
tensions are so high that the Israeli
head of the military and the head of the
shinb the Secret Service have made it to
Egypt last week to uh ease up tensions
and assure the the Egyptians that
there's not going to be as far as Israel
is concerned uh trying to push
Palestinians um refugees into Egypt is
nothing that they're planning on or or
at least not anything that they're going
to be intentionally pursuing M okay we
know that Ramadan the Muslim holy month
is just weeks away now um what what role
does Ramadan play here I mean you know
Israel is weighing its options in its
war against Hamas where to go next how
important is Ramadan in these
calculations well very much I mean
officially talked to netan you talked to
other people in his cabinet they say you
know we're not going to we're going to
disregard Ramadan because we were
attacked on October 7th on our holy days
so the Hamas itself has shown zero
respect to religious uh uh needs however
uh when we talk about real politic if
we're talking about this region we're
talking about other fronts that Israel
is dealing with when it comes to Israeli
Arabs uh within Israeli territory for
talking about the West Bank it's clear
that fighting through Ramadan will be
Crossing some sort of a line and the
very delicate balance that is there and
might bring Israel more problems of
course the International Community is
against that and so the Americans right
from the get-go of this round of talks
set up Ramadan as a deadline hoping it
will help all sides to sort of
deescalate come down and and see that as
a as a as a beginning of of entering a
new phase of deescalation and some sort
of relief to this terrible trategy that
we're seeing unfolding in Gaza every day
ew Middle East analyst Shan rzan thank
you so much
shannie Dr Sanam vakil is director of
the middle easn North Africa program of
the London based think tank at chattam
house welcome to DW um I'd like to start
with with that that uh Egyptian threat
to uh walk away from its 1979 peace
treaty with Israel if the Rafa operation
goes ahead and I guess my first question
is in two parts what effect would that
have and why is Egypt so
concerned thank you for having me uh
well um Egypt um is not making this
threat lightly um it sees the
displacement of Palestinians um as very
dangerous um as a precedent uh it
doesn't want to see the repeat of uh the
1948 displacement of Palestinians that
took place um as a result of the uh War
at the time secondly of course um a
displacement of Palestinians um could uh
of of course pose challenges for Egypt's
own security um and the Egyptian
government is using the threat of break
uh diplomatic ties with Israel ties That
Egypt has maintained since 1979 as
leverage um for the Israeli government
to take Egypt's position um on
Palestinian displacement
seriously we have seen however that that
that Israel is determined to take uh to
to to plow its own Furrow if I can put
it that way uh not even heeding advice
from its closest Ally the United States
uh quite often is this threat for from
uh Egypt likely to be taken seriously by
Israel well since Egypt has made that um
threat very public and and and has been
quite persistent in um pressing uh this
Avenue of escalation there have been um
revived uh talks um uh to get to a
temporary ceasefire and Egypt has been a
very important interlocutor mediator um
alongside Qatar and the United States um
in Paris but also in the region um in
order to get to this ceasefire uh before
ramadon which begins on March 10th um so
uh it it does look like um the carrot
and stick approach if you will um might
be getting some traction and the
mediators um including US president uh
Joe Biden um have indicated that they're
um getting close to an agreement which
is a a very positive sign and and what
should we read into Israel's use of
Ramadan a Muslim Festival um as a
military
deadline well I think it's um everyone's
deadline not just um Israel's deadline I
think it's important um to achieve a
ceasefire as as soon as possible it's
important obviously to release hostages
but above all um to also address uh the
massive humanitarian disaster that's
taking place in Gaza
um with so many lives lost over 30,000
at this point um a ceasefire needs to
happen yesterday um and delaying it to
the start of Ramadan I don't think is a
positive um or productive outcome for
for all sides um but Ramadan is seen as
a deadline because there are deep fears
uh across the region that uh this war
could escalate um that violence could
spread into the West Bank and East
Jerusalem where the Israeli government
has not allowed Muslims access to the
al- AA mosque and during Ramadan at a
time of a deep um uh religious meaning
uh for um Muslims across the region
being deprived of the opportunity to
pray at the alaa mosque um would be uh
very dangerous and and could it lead to
um violence as well okay that's very
clear thank you so much for joining us
and outlining that for us Dr samam vakil
from chat
M thank
you