The 208th Day of War in Israel

US Secretary of State has returned to Israel for his seventh trip here since the start of the war with Hamas.  He is slated to meet with Israeli officials and to help move along the offer now in the hands of Hamas.  That offer posits a 40-day cessation of fighting, the return of 20-30 Israeli hostages (of the over 130 still held by Hamas) and the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.  Hamas has had the offer since the weekend and the wait for their decision continues.

The Prime Minister’s Office advised early this afternoon that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extended meeting with US Secretary of State Blinken, has concluded. The US State Department said that Blinken noted in his meeting with Netanyahu the improvement in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but “reiterated the importance of accelerating and sustaining that improvement.” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Blinken also repeated to Netanyahu the continued American opposition to the operation in Rafah.

Jordan for the first time transported humanitarian aid into Gaza through Israel’s Erez Crossing, the Jordanian news agency Petra reported on today. Earlier Jordan claimed Israeli settlers attacked two of the aid convoys causing damage to trucks and some of the aid to be thrown off.  Nevertheless, the aid did manage to get to Gaza.

Regarding the northern border, France has dropped a demand for the withdrawal of Hezbollah north of Lebanon’s Litani River from its proposal to end the fighting on Israel’s northern border, the Al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday. The latest proposal, submitted by French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné this week, calls for a “repositioning” of Hezbollah, without defining to where, said the newspaper, which is close to the terrorist group.  The report cited sources familiar with the negotiations who said Paris’s latest submission calls for a ceasefire in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, ensuring the return of residents of border towns and the deployment of 15,000 Lebanese troops south of the Litani River.  France’s diplomatic solution for the conflict also includes a framework for demarcating the official border between Israel and Lebanon and the creation of a committee to oversee this undertaking.

Hezbollah has carried out near-daily attacks on northern Israel from Southern Lebanon since joining the war in support of Hamas a day after the latter’s Oct. 7 massacre.  Israel has threatened a full-scale invasion of Lebanon to push Hezbollah north of the Litani River—some 18 miles from the border—if a diplomatic solution is not found. Diplomatic efforts to calm tensions, including by the United States, have thus far been unsuccessful.

Over the weekend, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem threatened that a full-scale war with Israel would make the country’s northern region even more uninhabitable.  “[Israeli Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant threatens us that if we don’t stop the attacks, he will attack Lebanon to return the residents of the north to their homes,” he said.  “I say to Gallant that this war will not only cause the Zionists to not return to their homes but is likely to end their presence in the northern occupied territories once and for all,” he added.

On the political front, over half (58%) of the Israeli public believes that Prime Minister Netanyahu should resign immediately, including 28% of those who voted for the bloc that supports Netanyahu, according to a poll published by N12 on Tuesday.  Additionally, 48% of Israelis believe Defense Minister Yoav Gallant should resign immediately, 50% believe IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi should resign immediately, and 56% believe Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar should resign now.  Fifty-four percent of respondents said that elections should be held earlier. Over a third (37%) said that ministers Benny Gants and Gadi Eisenkot should leave the government.  A poll of voters this week found that, if elections were held today, the results would leave the bloc currently supporting Netanyahu with 50 seats and the bloc around Gantz and Yair Lapid with 65 seats of the 120 member Knesset.

On the street in Israel people seem to feel there is a possibility that some of the hostages will be released before Israel’s 76^th Independence Day on May 14^th.  May it be so.