The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that the Israeli War Council unanimously decided to request guarantees from the United States that the war on Gaza will resume if Hamas does not commit to completing the stages of the prisoner exchange deal.

The Commission confirmed that the War Council’s decision will be part of Israel’s conditions for concluding a new exchange deal.

The broadcasting authority indicated that the decision came due to Israel's fear that Hamas would extend the negotiations during the cessation of fighting to prevent the completion of the deal on the one hand and prevent the resumption of the war on the other hand.

It added that the Israeli leadership's fear of the possibility that the United States would not support the continuation of the war prompted it to request guarantees. The Broadcasting Corporation also quoted an Israeli government source as saying that the War Council's decision on American guarantees may rule out the possibility of reaching a deal.

Demonstration and petition

Meanwhile, a demonstration took place in front of the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv to demand an immediate prisoner exchange deal, with demonstrators calling on the Israeli government to take advantage of what they described as the current opportunity to return all detainees in Gaza.

Meanwhile, protesters closed the street leading to the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, and raised banners reading, “Concluding the deal is a victory for life.”

In turn, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that the families of the abductees collected the signatures of 70 members of the Knesset who agreed to support the exchange deal proposal.

The newspaper added that all members of the "Jewish Greatness" party led by Ben Gvir refused to sign the petition of the kidnapped families supporting the exchange deal, while some members of the Likud Party expressed reserved support for the deal without coming out and supporting it publicly.

Visits and statements

The past hours have witnessed rapid developments regarding the expected deal, as Axios quoted an American official and two informed sources as saying that CIA Director William Burns is expected to arrive in the Qatari capital, Doha, while Biden’s senior advisor for Middle East affairs, Brett McGurk, will arrive in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. .

According to these sources, Burns and McGurk's trip comes as part of a comprehensive pressure campaign carried out by the Biden administration in order to reach a breakthrough on the deal.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told Al Jazeera that the Gaza agreement proposal that Biden spoke about is an Israeli proposal, not an American one. He added that President Biden believes that the proposal represents a great opportunity to stop the war, and that the decision now rests with the Hamas movement, as he put it.

For his part, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari said that the Qatari side received an Israeli proposal that reflects the principles mentioned by Biden and conveyed to Hamas. He stressed that the proposal now includes positions of both sides that are closer than before, and that efforts are being made to put the final touches to reach an agreement.

In turn, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said that the movement informed the mediators that it would not conclude any agreement with Israel regarding the prisoners unless there was a clear position from Tel Aviv to prepare for a permanent cessation of the war and withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Hamdan added that the Israeli response that the movement received did not respond to that, which makes it inconsistent with the position expressed by the American President in his recent speech.