Saturday marks the end of Phase 1 of the Gaza ceasefire and exchange of captives deal and there is currently no agreement on proceeding to Phase 2. From the beginning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has portrayed the agreement as only one phase with the aim of getting as many Israeli captives released as possible while reserving the option to resume full-scale war and bombardment of the Gaza Strip. According to the signed deal, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor and that has not happened. Negotiations on Phase 2 were supposed to begin on February 3 and that did not happen because Netanyahu refused to send negotiators.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy, billionaire businessman Steve Witkoff, was scheduled to travel to Israel on Wednesday but then delayed his trip, saying he wanted to see negotiations between Israel, Hamas and mediators from Qatar and Egypt to resume. Soon after Witkoff postponed his travels, Netanyahu dispatched a team of Israeli negotiators to Cairo to restart talks. Hamas has maintained that it is committed to the original agreement but said it is open to an omnibus deal that would envision the release of all Israeli captives in return for a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal. Israel, with support from the Trump administration, is insisting not only that Hamas not be involved with governance in post-war Gaza, but that its military wing be disbanded and disarmed and that its leadership leave Gaza entirely. The next week is going to be crucial.
On the new episode of Drop Site News’s podcast, Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous discuss the recent developments with the Gaza negotiations, as well as Egypt’s role in possible Gaza reconstruction and governance paths. A forthcoming Arab League summit is expected to be centered around presenting an alternative plan to Trump’s threats to turn Gaza into a U.S.-owned “Middle East Riviera,” one which would not include the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians of Gaza. Abdel Kouddous has just returned from Lebanon and discusses his reporting from the devastated south of the country in the wake of Israel’s withdrawal. Sharif also speaks with a leading political figure in Hezbollah and member of the Lebanese parliament Dr. Ibrahim al-Moussawi about Trump’s demand that Hezbollah be expelled from the Lebanese government and the pledge by Lebanon’s new president that he will impose a monopoly on the use of arms, which suggests a plan to disarm Hezbollah. They also discuss the future of Hezbollah in the wake of the assassination and funeral of the group’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Make sure to check out this interview by Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain with Rajan Menon, an expert on Ukraine, and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.
And Drop Site News has partnered with Jolt Films to offer our paid subscribers free access to The Bibi Files, a 2024 documentary from filmmaker, Alexis Bloom and producer, Alex Gibney.
Using never-seen-before interrogation footage, this investigation of Benjamin Netanyahu and his inner circle provides an unflinching gaze into the private world behind the headlines. Petty vanity and a sense of entitlement leads to corruption, and the unwillingness of the Netanyahus to give up power. The extreme right senses opportunity in Bibi’s weakness, and the dominos fall.
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This is fantastic. I've followed you both for years. I can't begin to express how grateful I am
to you both. I am a Middle East historian (Emeritus), and a Jew and my focus has been the war over Palestine and my activism in support of Palestinian liberation.
Your reporting has been invaluable throughout and the two of you joining together- brilliant!
There is no ceasfire Just bombing in different places, varied nations and more villages. What is the UN Peacekeeping force doing at the border between Israel and Lebanon? Are there calls from the UN to vastly increase this force with military from around the world to stop Israel? Do other Nations expect this force will STOP the invasion and destruction of Israel from other nations who are now provoked to rise up and destroy this indiscriminate, international aggressor? Think again. Stop Israel at their own borders, withdraw bombing in other nations and in the West Bank and Gaza or pay the price of your war.
It's great to hear from this Lebanese politician. Thank you!! The solution we all yearn for are 'political'. If only people in 'The West' could hear from leaders of resistance groups more often, we'd see through the bs fed to us in the west. Can you imagine non-military people in the US disarming? Hezbolla should change their name to Proud Boys and join the NRA lobby!!
excellent reporting on the ground and from the source
The world will do nothing about Israels disgusting conduct because they have the USA in their pocket. I mean Netanyahu gave Trump a gold plated cell with a stupid grin on his sly face.
"Access to this film is a benefit offered to our paid subscribers. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, click the link below to become one today and we’ll send you a link to the film." Hello-- I am a paid subscriber, but I have not seen the link to the film. How do I get this link?