The Peace Board for Gaza has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly renew his support for the peace plan promoted by the United States and to rely on the verification mechanisms provided to ensure the disarmament of Hamas militias.
Netanyahu indicated this morning that he is moving away from the plan because he considers it unfeasible to obtain full guarantees that Hamas has completed a "complete" disarmament before ordering the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the extensive area of the Gaza Strip that they control.
The Director General of the Peace Board, Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, has intervened on Channel 12 of Israeli television to ask Netanyahu for a gesture of trust. "No one is obliged to do anything, and much less Israel, before we have verified measures on the ground," Mladenov pointed out.
"We only ask the Israeli troops not to go beyond the 'Yellow Line'" that marks their positions in Gaza, he added, emphasizing that the peace plan does not limit Israel's ability to react if it is forced to respond to attacks from Hamas militias.
For its part, Hamas has responded to Netanyahu's rejection with a message in which it supports the fundamental axes of the proposal, although it demands a detailed timetable for the Israeli withdrawal and the total and definitive end of military operations by the Army in the Palestinian enclave.
The Palestinian Islamist movement accuses Israel of maintaining its offensives in the Strip, which continue to affect the civilian population: more than 1,200 people have lost their lives there due to the Israeli offensive despite the ceasefire declaration from October of last year.
On the same Channel 12, anonymous sources from the U.S. government have downplayed Netanyahu's statements, interpreting them as a maneuver to reinforce his position before the public in light of the decisive elections in October.
"We understand his political needs. We have no problem with that, as long as he continues to do what we ask, especially regarding stopping the attacks in Gaza," they stated. Washington has reiterated several times to Israel that it will not tolerate a resumption of a large-scale offensive in Gaza, although it has shown flexibility with the current pace of daily Israeli attacks on the enclave.