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Biden’s leadership has insisted that Israel limit Palestinian casualties and have a plan for Gaza’s future. President Biden demonstrated last Tuesday that he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for a pause in the fighting to free the hostages. Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s special adviser representative, told Nick Schifrin that they were “open” to ruptures and did not need to govern Gaza.
Amna Nawaz:
Last night we got to see Leila’s interview with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Shtayyeh.
Tonight, Nick Schifrin has the role of senior advisor to the Israeli government.
Nick Schifrin:
Biden’s leadership has insisted that Israel limit Palestinian casualties and have a plan for Gaza’s future, and President Biden tonight showed the request to suspend the Israeli army’s operation to free the hostages.
To talk about those demands and the Israeli operation, we turned to Mark Regev, senior adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister and Israel’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Thank you so much, Mark Regev. It’s always a pleasure. Welcome to NewsHour.
As I said, tonight President Biden showed that he had asked Prime Minister Netanyahu for breaks to free the hostages. The Prime Minister showed – and I quote – ‘small tactical breaks, an hour here, an hour there’.
But are you willing to do what the president is asking for, which is a more significant pause to release the hostages?
Mark Regev, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel: Well, as you said in your question, Nick – and thank you for having me – we’re open to pauses.
We have done it in the hereafter and we are in a position to do it in the future. Obviously, for example, we had two pairs of hostages who were released separately, a couple of American women and a couple of elderly Israeli women. They were released as part of a limited-time local operational pause.
We have also done so to facilitate the trend of others retreating from danger and civilians in Gaza moving from north to south. We did this to facilitate access for humanitarian materials to the Gaza Strip, food, medicine and water. That’s how I’ve done it in the past. We can do that in the future.
Nick Schifrin:
The pause to release these two hostages to allow the ICRC to physically move them.
But this pause request is more detailed than that. Barak Ravid of Axios reports that the deal on the table is a three-day pause for 10 to 15 hostages, as well as a list of 240 hostages. Can you verify this?
Marc Regev:
I am in a position to prove it.
I can tell you that we are in a position to do so; Of course, for us, the number one humanitarian factor is the release of the hostages. And, of course, to achieve that, we’re going to be willing to take a break. It’s a fact.
Nick Schifrin:
How are you willing to go?
Marc Regev:
Well, obviously, this is a number one priority for us. The hostages, 240 other people are being held, in addition to 30 children, a 9-month-old baby and a baby under 3 years old. That shows what we’re up against. con, nick.
Who – what kind of barbarians kidnap babies?What kind of barbarians kidnap young children?Yes, we are dealing with a very, very harmful terrorist organization that does not hesitate to kidnap young people. Of course, we saw how many young people they killed when they invaded Israel. We are dealing with other deceitful people. We hope we can get the others out. We believe that the existing military pressure on them will facilitate and accelerate the release of the hostages.
Nick Schifrin:
You said you hope the army’s operation will lead them to take hostages.
Are they also giving carrots to Hamas to convince them to hand over the hostages?
Marc Regev:
We believe that what will have to be exerted is the tension of the army.
Of course, there are parallel talks across Qatar. Qatar has relations with Hamas. Hamas leaders live in Qatar. There they are welcomed through the government of Qatar. And Qatar is saying to the world: well, we have a date with those and that’s smart for the West.
I mean, they have dates with other people who committed the atrocities of a month ago, on October 7, the massacre, other people who raped, murdered, massacred, burned other people alive, horrible, horrible things. Now, they say, Qatar’s government and others say these appointments serve the interests of the West.
Okay, let’s wait and see. Can you use your appointments to speed up the release of the hostages?I hope they succeed. But we’re waiting to see if there are results.
Nick Schifrin:
And Qatar, of course, is in the middle of this hostage negotiation, as you say.
Let me tell you about the consequences of the war in Gaza. Yesterday, the Prime Minister told ABC’s David Muir that Israel is planning – and I quote – “an indefinite security check” over Gaza.
Can you do that? Does this come with control of some internal territory in Gaza?
Marc Regev:
So we’re not talking about any kind of long-term Israeli occupation. We have no preference for governing the other Gazans. And we have no preference for governing the Gaza Strip.
We will have to distinguish between political and security presence. At the end of the day, we do not wish to defeat Hamas and destroy it only to see another terrorist organization come in and threaten us from the Gaza Strip. I believe that at least initially, after this operation, in order to prevent the resurgence of terrorist organizations, we will desire an Israeli political and security presence.
It doesn’t have to be static. It may just be fluid. This can simply come with inputs and outputs, as needed, to deal with imaginable threats.
Nick Schifrin:
You’ve just. . .
Marc Regev:
At the end of the day, we want the rest of Gaza’s population to govern themselves.
Nick Schifrin:
Sorry to interrupt you, Mark. You hit and almost talked about political presence.
Just to confirm, I’m not talking about any kind of governance being proposed in Gaza. You’re just talking about a security presence. Could this come with a buffer zone?
Marc Regev:
Yes, there will be a buffer zone. We have to, after what we’ve been through, yes.
But I think the concept goes like this: Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip for 16 years. They have produced nothing for the Palestinians in Gaza, no pain, no bloodshed, no suffering, no impoverishment. the one that comes after Hamas will be greater for Israel, because our citizens in the south of my country will be able to live without worrying about their young people being slaughtered in the middle of the afternoon by terrorists coming from across the border.
And in the end it will be greater for the rest of Gazans, who deserve more than this terrorist regime that doesn’t give a damn about the interests and well-being of Gaza’s civilian population. We see it in the way they act in this conflict.
Nick Schifrin:
To achieve peace in southern Israel, of course there will have to be governance in Gaza. The U. S. has warned that governments could be taken over through the Palestinian Authority, which lately takes the place of the West Bank.
The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority asked about this through my colleague Leila Molana-Allen, and he replied – and I quote – “The Palestinian Authority will not enter Gaza in an Israeli army tank”, and the only way for the Palestinian Authority to enter the Gaza Strip is to do so. Participation in the governance of Gaza – and I quote – “within the framework of a solution that addresses the question of Palestine, that addresses the factor of occupation”.
Will the Israeli government also seek a two-state solution, if that is what the Palestinian Authority is proposing?Should we take control of Gaza?
Marc Regev:
Well, if we’re talking about the Palestinian Authority, we’re a month away from the horrific attacks of October 7 and the Palestinian Authority has yet to condemn those attacks.
And if the Palestinian Authority needs to be recognized as a spouse of peace, one must wonder why they refuse to condemn Hamas’ atrocities. Why can’t they condemn rape, murder and beheadings?Hamás. Si they can’t condemn this, what kind of peace spouse are they?
Nick Schifrin:
Let me talk about the air crusade and the ground crusade in Gaza.
And let me show you some videos from the last few days, after an attack on the Jabalia refugee camp. The target is Hamas commanders and a Hamas tunnel underneath the camp. And when the tunnel collapsed, an entire city block collapsed, an unknown number.
So let me ask you: How many Gazans are you going to kill inadvertently in order to kill the Hamas leadership and tear down this tunnel?
Marc Regev:
So, we’ve been calling for weeks, as you said on “NewsHour,” to urge Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to relocate to the south, we knew there would be heavy fighting in the north.
And we asked other people to please stay out of harm’s way. We don’t need to see them caught in the crossfire between us, between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas terrorists.
And the fact is that the vast majority of the population has moved south. They voted with their feet and left the area. Now Hamas is trying to prevent them. Hamas ordered others to stay. Hamas appeared, created physical barriers and, at gunpoint, kept other people inside.
But our goal was to get as much of the others out of the combat zone as possible to ensure their safety, and as many of them as many as they left.
(crosstalk)
Nick Schifrin:
But, as you know, there are still two hundred left. Sorry to interrupt. Sorry to interrupt.
But there are still between 200,000 and 300,000 more people in northern Gaza. If Israel could simply kill a Hamas commander or destroy a tunnel and, say, know that a hundred civilians could die, would it take that hit?
Marc Regev:
Well, first of all, we don’t know that a hundred civilians were killed, do we?Let’s be clear. We don’t know.
I saw some of those shots of the bombing at the bomb site. They all look like military-age men. And, of course, you know that Hamas terrorists don’t wear uniforms. And we want to perceive that.
It should also be said that all the data coming out of Gaza is provided through the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, and they give Hamas figures, and they should be taken with a grain of salt. And I dare say that even the photographs coming out of Gaza are controlled by Hamas. We haven’t noticed, and I defy you: have we seen a single photograph of a Hamas terrorist killed by the Israelis in our attacks?No.
They only show you shots of civilians. So either we can assume that we are only killing civilians, which is manifestly illogical, or that Hamas is getting by with the images.
Nick Schifrin:
But, of course, there are women and girls who die.
And I only have about 30 seconds, Mark. So let me ask you this question. Are you worried that Israel will create a new generation of Palestinians who will affiliate with Hamas or whatever it is that will stick to those bombings, or are you worried that those bombings will create more tension in your crusade before it’s all over, before you can reach your goals?
Marc Regev:
Nick, I hope that until the end of this operation, first of all, Hamas will disappear. And they will disappear. We’ll get there.
But I think we will have discredited the kind of extremism, the kind of bigotry and the kind of barbarism that Hamas has shown. The Palestinians will have to perceive Hamas as a dead end. Hamas promises only a long streak of blood and suffering. while the afterlife – the path of cooperation, the path of negotiation, the path of living in peace with Israel – offers much more.
Nick Schifrin:
yes I am.
Marc Regev:
And the Arab world has opened up to Israel in recent years like never before.
Nick Schifrin:
yes I am.
Marc Regev:
We have noticed new relations with the Gulf countries.
As you know, just before this crisis, there was a statement about the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. It is time for the Palestinians to join the circle of peace as well.
Nick Schifrin:
All right, we’re going to have to end there.
Mark Regev, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, thank you very much.
Marc Regev:
Thank you for having me.
As Deputy Senior Producer of Foreign Affairs and Defense at PBS NewsHour, Dan plays a key role in helping to oversee and produce the show’s defense and foreign affairs stories. His articles broke new ground on a variety of military topics, revealing debates that were brewing in the open air. the public eye.
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