‘Critical question’: Will there be ‘full-scale’ UN aid for Gaza, ‘deployment of int’l peacekeepers’?

In the lead-up to the release of the Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, “both sides are trying to extract what they can in these final hours, before they fulfil their side of the deal,” explains Yezid Sayigh, Senior Fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Mr. Sayigh affirms that ‘both sides will go through with this, no matter how painful or how much distress it gives them.” Now, for the ceasefire to take hold and be successful, it would require “the arrival of aid deepening, the withdrawal of forces deepening,” eventually leading to what Mr. Sayigh describes as a “liberated Gaza”. Yet, he is not convinced that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli’s far right “would ever accept” the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. All the while, Israel continues “arming local clans” to take on, collide with Hamas.