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Itongadol.- The Foreign Ministry has crafted a recommendation to the government saying Israel should not cooperate with an investigation by the UN Human Rights Council looking into Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip, Ynet reports.
“The committee decided on by the Council will be formed and will write a report, but if a committee is formed relying on the automatic anti-Israel majority, then we need to ask if Israel needs to cooperate,” says a ministry source. “We didn’t cooperate with Goldstone [after Cast Lead] and it disappeared from the world.”
The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Wednesday, the 30th day since the start of Operation Protective Edge and the second day of a truce intended to lead to a long-term ceasefire. An Israeli delegation is in Cairo to discuss the terms of a long-term ceasefire with Hamas. The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into force on Tuesday morning, and Hamas fired a salvo of rockets minutes before, and then fell quiet. Israeli military chiefs said they had delivered a “serious blow” to Hamas, including destroying all its known cross-border tunnels, and would restart military action if needed
The 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds as it enters its second day, with no rockets being fired at Israel, and all IDF forces out of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are returning to their homes and inspecting the damage.
A trusted associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a high-ranking defense official are leading Israel’s delegation to Cairo for ceasefire talks with Palestinian factions, according to Israeli media reports.
Yitzhak Molcho, Netanyahu’s close aide, was a member of Israel’s negotiation team during recent failed peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. Amos Gilad is the director of policy and political-military affairs at Ministry of Defense. Both have been in Cairo for previous ceasefire discussions.
The delegation arrived in Cairo Tuesday evening. It will not be holding direct negotiations with the Palestinian party — which includes members of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and others — but will be transferring messages back and forth through Egyptian mediators.
A senior diplomatic official tells Walla News that Israel believes Hamas has come to the talks battered and weakened by the lengthy conflict.
Hamas “has essentially conceded its [demand for] guarantees and preconditions,” the official said. “Hamas is having a difficult time explaining to its supporters why it has accepted the Egyptian initiative which it resoundingly rejected three weeks ago,” with Gaza now having sustained heavy damage and around 1,800 Palestinians killed.
“Hamas wanted Turkish or Qatari mediation under US approval, but eventually found itself in Cairo, in a delegation led by a Palestinian Authority representative,” he noted, meanwhile losing “its tunnel network and the effectiveness of [its] rocket array.”