0:00

It was a moment of overwhelming

0:02

relief for Israelis. That's

0:09

a beach lifeguard announcing the news

0:12

that special forces had rescued four

0:14

hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

0:17

It was also a moment of triumph for

0:19

the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but

0:21

he did not have long to bask in

0:23

it. Benny

0:27

Gantz, a centrist member of Israel's

0:29

Unity War Cabinet, announced his resignation

0:31

on Sunday over Netanyahu's management of

0:33

the war in Gaza. He

0:40

said Netanyahu was prioritizing his own

0:43

political survival over the fate of

0:45

the hostages in captivity. Gantz

0:47

was a moderating voice in the

0:50

war cabinet. After his resignation, Netanyahu

0:52

will be even more reliant on

0:54

far-right members of his coalition who

0:56

have vocally opposed efforts to broker

0:59

a ceasefire. Amid all

1:01

this, the U.S. continues to push a

1:03

ceasefire proposal outlined last month. Here's

1:06

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on CNN

1:08

on Sunday. The best

1:10

way to get all of the hostages home and

1:12

to protect Palestinian civilians is to end this war.

1:14

And the best way to end this war is

1:17

for Hamas to say yes to the

1:19

deal President Biden announced and that Israel

1:21

has accepted. The U.N. Security Council passed

1:23

a U.S. drafted resolution supporting that

1:25

deal on Monday, but it's not

1:28

at all clear Israel will accept

1:30

it. On Sunday, Netanyahu

1:32

called for total victory, which

1:35

appears incompatible with the ceasefire

1:37

proposal. Without

1:40

a ceasefire, Palestinians will continue to

1:42

suffer. Saturday's hostage

1:44

rescue took place in a densely

1:47

populated refugee camp in Gaza. And

1:52

Pierre's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba,

1:54

was in the area and ran for cover

1:56

at a United Nations school. We

2:01

don't know exactly what's happening here.

2:04

People are only trying to get inside

2:06

of the school in order to take

2:09

a shelter. Gaza's health ministry said

2:11

Israel killed more than 270 Palestinians

2:13

during the operation, including

2:16

at least 64 children. Hundreds

2:18

more people were reported injured.

2:22

Consider this. After a weekend

2:25

that brought many Israelis relief

2:27

and many Palestinians more anguish,

2:29

there is still no clear

2:31

path to end this war. Learn

2:57

more about their momentum.

2:59

Go to danafarber.org/everywhere. This

3:20

message comes from NPR sponsor,

3:22

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3:40

considered this from NPR. The

3:43

U.N. Security Council vote in support

3:45

of the ceasefire proposal is noteworthy

3:47

but symbolic. Any durable

3:49

agreement will ultimately come down to

3:51

Israel and Hamas. And so

3:53

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in

3:56

the Middle East Monday trying to

3:58

get regional leaders on board. If

4:00

you want a ceasefire, press Hamas

4:03

to say yes. If

4:05

you want to alleviate the terrible suffering

4:07

of Palestinians in Gaza, press

4:10

Hamas to say yes. If

4:12

you want to get all the hostages home, press

4:15

Hamas to say yes. To get

4:17

a sense of what this weekend's events might mean

4:19

for the war and its ending, I

4:21

spoke with two NPR reporters, Michelle Kellerman,

4:23

who covers the State Department and Daniel

4:26

Estrin, based in Israel. Welcome.

4:29

Hi, Louise. Hi there. Michelle,

4:31

you start. The ceasefire plan that's on

4:33

the table, that America's top diplomat, is

4:35

trying to rally the world behind. What's

4:37

in it? What are the details?

4:39

Yeah, so it's what President Biden laid out at the

4:41

end of May. It's this three-phased

4:43

approach to ending the war. It

4:46

starts with a six-week ceasefire and the release of

4:48

some of the hostages. Israel would

4:50

have to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. That

4:53

number still has to

4:55

be negotiated. And once all that starts,

4:57

Israel and Hamas are supposed to negotiate

5:00

a permanent ceasefire, and Israel would withdraw

5:02

from Gaza. Hamas wants a guarantee of

5:04

all of that now, but this is

5:06

a phased approach with lots of potential

5:09

pitfalls and no guarantees. And so

5:11

what Blinken's trying to do is

5:14

to get more countries to press Hamas to

5:16

agree to it, as you heard. The

5:19

U.S. also brought the plan to

5:21

the U.N. Security Council this afternoon

5:23

and got an almost unanimous

5:25

endorsement. Russia abstained, but everyone

5:27

else voted for the resolution, which the

5:30

U.S. says sends a clear message to

5:32

Hamas to accept the deal and for

5:34

both Hamas and Israel to start implementing

5:36

it. Daniel, just to remind

5:38

people of the backdrop, one of Israel's main

5:41

goals all along has been the release

5:43

of its hostages. Then

5:45

it launched a raid this weekend that freed four

5:47

of those hostages who were being held in Gaza.

5:49

How does that rescue, how does that play into

5:51

these ceasefire talks? Well,

5:53

I think for Israelis that hostage rescue

5:55

this weekend only reinforced that the military

5:57

cannot free all of the hostages. in

6:00

that kind of special ops rescue. And

6:02

the only way to get all the

6:04

hostages out alive, as even the military

6:07

spokesman himself has said, is through a

6:09

deal with Hamas. So there is increasing

6:11

public pressure in Israel to strike that

6:14

deal. From Israel's security establishment perspective, they

6:16

feel it is the right time for

6:18

the deal, mostly because

6:20

of the battlefield accomplishments that they see in

6:22

Gaza, the Israeli military taking

6:25

over the Gaza border with Egypt, going

6:27

after Hamas and Rafah. And

6:29

they also believe that a ceasefire deal could

6:31

actually quiet the northern border with Lebanon,

6:34

where there's been an uptick in Hezbollah

6:36

fire. The question really, Mary

6:39

Louise, is if there is political will in

6:41

Israel. Blinken has said that Hamas is the

6:43

one that needs to be pushed on this

6:45

ceasefire deal. Israeli Prime

6:47

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu truly does not

6:49

seem willing to take the political

6:51

risk necessary to really embrace this

6:53

ceasefire deal, because his far-right political

6:55

partners oppose it. They oppose an

6:57

end to the war without Hamas

7:00

destroyed. From the Hamas

7:02

perspective, I should add that, you know, this

7:05

hostage raid killed more than 200 Palestinians, as

7:08

you mentioned. We'll have to see how much of

7:10

a setback that could be for the ceasefire efforts,

7:12

but their position remains. They won't agree to a

7:14

ceasefire deal until Israel, until there's a

7:16

guarantee that Israel really means it's gonna be the

7:18

end of the war. Michelle, pick up on

7:20

the point that we just heard Daniel nodding. Secretary

7:24

Blinken says Hamas is

7:26

the problem. Israel has accepted the deal that

7:28

Hamas is holding out, but Israel has not

7:30

accepted crucial elements of this plan, at least

7:32

as it was set out by President Biden,

7:34

right? How is he squaring that? Yeah, I

7:37

mean, U.S. officials have repeatedly said that Israel

7:39

has agreed to the plan, despite what Netanyahu

7:41

says for his own political reasons. And

7:44

in fact, Mary Louise, the U.N. Security

7:46

Council, which the U.S. drafted, says

7:49

that Israel has endorsed it. So in a

7:51

way, the U.S. is trying to

7:53

box Israel in. If the U.N. Security Council

7:55

and much of the world now backs this

7:57

plan, and pressure is Hamas-designed,

8:00

up for it, it will be harder

8:02

for Netanyahu not to at least start

8:04

this process. I mean, it's a gamble,

8:06

of course, and there's a lot of

8:09

political issues at play, as Daniel has

8:11

suggested. Is it also a case of

8:13

possibly different political timelines playing out here?

8:16

One from the Biden administration, one from

8:18

Benjamin Netanyahu? Daniel? Yeah, I

8:20

mean, I think there are two different political timelines here,

8:22

at least two different ones. I

8:24

mean, Biden wants a ceasefire deal really soon because

8:27

the war is hurting his reelection campaign. He

8:29

wants to advance this historic treaty between

8:31

Saudi Arabia and Israel as part of

8:34

this grand bargain to end

8:36

the war and to do all that before

8:38

the elections. Netanyahu is

8:40

on almost an opposite timeline. Many Israeli

8:43

analysts believe that Netanyahu actually would probably

8:45

rather wait for a potential Trump victory

8:48

because he may think that Trump can

8:50

offer him a better deal for Saudi-Israeli relations.

8:53

Trump would not insist that Israel make concessions

8:55

to the Palestinians as part of that deal.

8:58

And then, you know, Netanyahu has this

9:00

third timeline, which is his own political

9:03

reality in Israel, the potential of new elections.

9:06

His main political rival, Benny Gantz, resigned from

9:08

the war cabinet yesterday. He's calling for elections

9:10

in the fall. There's a good chance Netanyahu

9:13

could lose those elections. Well,

9:15

let's look ahead. Michelle Killam and I gave you the

9:17

first word. I'll give you the last word too, but

9:20

because we love you. We

9:22

were talking about the vote at the UN

9:24

today. Where does the Biden administration take

9:27

this next? Well, I

9:29

mean, I think that vote should give

9:31

a boost to Secretary Blinken, who remains

9:33

in the region. And

9:35

he's heading to Jordan tomorrow for a

9:37

big conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza.

9:40

So that should give him a big boost

9:42

that the US is doing something that has

9:44

some support from the region. He's also

9:46

planning to visit Qatar, which is a

9:49

key country in these ceasefire talks. Hamas

9:52

has an office in Doha, Qatar,

9:54

and that's a place where they

9:56

receive the formal responses from Hamas

9:59

political figures. and also visited Egypt,

10:01

which is the other key player in

10:03

these negotiations. So he's really just trying

10:05

to get these talks going and to

10:07

get this first phase started.

10:09

It is NPR

10:12

diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kellerman and

10:14

international correspondent Daniel Estrin. Thanks

10:16

to you both. Thank you. You're welcome. This

10:21

episode was produced by Connor Donovan

10:23

and Noah Caldwell. It was

10:25

edited by Courtney Dornang and James

10:27

Heider. Our executive producer, Sammy Yennigan.

10:30

And one more thing before we go, you

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