00:00 A deal remains elusive, really.
00:02 I mean, I'm not sure that Hamas's response moved the ball forward at all.
00:09 In fact, it may have moved the ball backwards.
00:11 I mean, Hamas suddenly put many demands on the table that Israelis didn't expect and
00:19 which they say really crosses a line.
00:22 For example, Hamas demanding in phase one for Israel to change some of the regulations
00:30 that have been in place for almost 20 years about Jews and their visitation rights and
00:35 the al-Aqsa compound where Jews and Arabs share in Jerusalem's Old City a holy site.
00:42 I mean, that's completely out of the box and a non-starter for Israel.
00:47 Also the demand for Palestinian prisoners to be released, the number of those who've
00:52 committed very serious crimes, murder, et cetera, and who are serving life sentences.
00:58 They wanted something like 500 of those released.
01:01 That seems a very high number.
01:04 And that in addition to the huge gaps which we knew going into this negotiation.
01:10 Hamas wants to end the war.
01:12 Israel doesn't.
01:13 Hamas wants every troop out of the Gaza Strip.
01:17 Israel has maintained that it will continue to have some kind of security control.
01:22 And it's in the midst of building or clearing, we should say, a security buffer where it
01:28 anticipates that it will hold maybe a kilometer running down Gaza's from north to south to
01:38 provide more protection for Israeli civilians when they return to that area.
01:43 So there's still huge gaps here.
01:46 And we're likely to hear from the Israeli prime minister tonight that Hamas is not serious
01:52 about a deal, that certainly if they were, they wouldn't be putting these demands on
01:57 the table.
01:58 And it's worth noting that Hamas is obviously not rushing or feeling desperate for a deal.
02:05 They are holding their ground in southern Gaza.
02:07 Their leaders are alive.
02:08 They're holding over 100 hostages.
02:12 And it feels as if they must believe time is on their hand, on their side, to have handed
02:19 over a deal like this with so many demands that Israel has already rejected or would
02:24 find it very hard to meet.
02:26 Yeah.
02:27 And as you say, we're going to hear more clues as to what's going on first with the Israeli
02:32 prime minister, who's due to speak.
02:33 We'll be carrying it live this hour.
02:36 And then the U.S. Secretary of State a little bit later.
02:40 They're speaking separately, not at the same time.
02:44 That's right.
02:45 And I think, you know, that speaks to kind of the growing division between Jerusalem
02:49 and Washington over some of the core issues here.
02:52 Not only the hostage deal, but the United States', you know, their vision for post-war
02:58 Gaza, which includes a Palestinian, a revitalized Palestinian authority and leadership.
03:06 It includes some kind of pathway for a Palestinian state and rebooting or reigniting a serious
03:13 discussion about a political solution to this conflict.
03:18 Those are two main issues that Netanyahu rejects.
03:21 He is against a Palestinian state.
03:23 He is against having any of the leadership there.
03:27 You know, Netanyahu has refused to really lay out in any clear way what his vision is
03:32 for Gaza after this war is over.
03:35 And I think that is a point of frustration not just for global leaders, but even for
03:41 the generals who are with him in the war cabinet who are trying to win this war, whatever that
03:47 means.
03:48 Blinken, you know, he has so many challenges here.
03:51 On top of the hostage issue, he's going to be talking about the northern border here,
03:57 the intensifying violence and cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah, urging
04:02 Israel likely to hold off on any other large scale operations in southern Lebanon and wait
04:13 for the U.S. to try to get its diplomacy to work, that is to carve out a deal with Lebanon
04:19 to get Hezbollah to move off Israel's northern border.
04:23 Maybe that'll happen.
04:25 Right now, Israel's not, they're not so confident about it, but they are willing to give it
04:30 a little more time.
04:32 But essentially, they're hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
04:35 I mean, Israel is very clear that it is training its troops, it's carrying division, you know,
04:40 positioning three divisions already in the north.
04:44 And so it is, you know, getting prepared for all scenarios, including a war with Hezbollah.
04:51 Now.
