US President Joe Biden (Reuters)

“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children,” US President Joe Biden said recently, in what appeared to be a wake-up call to the truth after months of arming Israel and giving absolute support for its devastating war on the Strip.

In line with this position, the American press covered leaks about persistent efforts made by the President’s administration to cease fire in Gaza and allow the entry of aid to more than two million Palestinians, whom Israel is bombing with America’s weapons and besieging them with its influence in the Security Council and decision-making centers around the world.

In an unprecedented manner, Biden's deputy, Kamala Harris, came out to say that there is no excuse for Israel to prevent aid from reaching the residents of the Gaza Strip, stressing the importance of reaching a ceasefire.

Returning to the original... Israel's interest only

However, the American awakening did not last long, as Biden returned to his previous path and demanded things that were all in the interest of Israel, and did not bring to mind the costs that the Palestinians paid before and after the Al-Aqsa flood operation.

The US President said that the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was in the hands of the Hamas movement after “Israel did what it had to do and agreed to a reasonable proposal.”

Since October 7, Israel has killed 31,000 Palestinians and wounded 70,000, most of them women and children, in addition to destroying residential neighborhoods and infrastructure, and displacing and starving people in various cities of the besieged Strip.

In the face of this scene, Israel should have been forced to accept a ceasefire, rebuild the homes, schools, and hospitals it destroyed, and lift the stifling siege on civilians.

But it did not do any of this. The reasonable proposal in Biden’s eyes is a 40-day ceasefire, which would enable Israel to recover its prisoners, give it a short break from fighting in the field, and avoid an expected uprising in the month of Ramadan.

Biden stressed that “the Israelis are cooperating” and said that their offer of a ceasefire is rational, adding, “We will know how things will turn out within two days.”

But we need a ceasefire."

The only aspect in which the US President blamed Israel was preventing the arrival of aid, saying that it had no excuse for refusing to enter the trucks piled up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

To the Security Council... American escalation

Like Biden, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby urged the arrival of aid, praising Israel's ceasefire proposal and saying that it had negotiated in good faith, pledging to work with it until its prisoners were recovered and to ensure its ability to defend itself.

Kirby, who cried on the air due to Israel's losses on the first day of the Al-Aqsa flood, said yesterday, Tuesday, that Hamas must complete the matter and accept the Israeli proposal for a ceasefire.

The Biden administration not only praised the Israeli proposal, but also wants the Security Council to support it, to give Hamas two options: either to submit or to appear in the position of someone who refuses to shoot his own people.

The United States aborted 3 UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, submitted by Russia, the UAE, and Algeria.

However, Washington is currently submitting a proposal to the International Council stipulating an immediate ceasefire for a period of 40 days in exchange for Israel returning all its prisoners held by resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.

Conditions for resistance: costs from the field 

However, what America sees as acceptable and reasonable is very far from what the Palestinian resistance wants, which refuses to grant Israel in negotiations what it was unable to achieve in the field.

After 152 days of devastating bombardment, the Palestinian resistance is still facing the Israeli army on the battlefields, inflicting heavy losses in life and equipment daily.

Israel acknowledges the killing of 586 soldiers since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, including 253 soldiers and officers killed in field battles in Gaza.

Yesterday, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said that what Israel failed to achieve on the battlefield will not be achieved at the negotiating table, stressing that any prisoner exchange cannot take place except after a ceasefire and all Hamas conditions are met.

Hamas insists on a ceasefire first and then entering into a negotiation process - with international guarantees - that will lead to the exchange of prisoners, the withdrawal of the occupation, the return of residents to their cities and villages, the lifting of the siege, and reconstruction.

In the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas wants to release 500 Palestinian prisoners, including senior leaders from various factions, in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli detainees, including civilians, the elderly, and female soldiers.

Source: Al Jazeera