Reaching a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas hinges on resolving critical issues such as securing the return of hostages, preventing Hamas from rearming, and ensuring that the terrorist group does not regain control of Gaza, according to Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss.
“We need to bring home the hostages. We need to make sure Hamas is not able to arm itself and to be a threat once again to Israel, and would not be the future government in Gaza because it would do once again what it did until now, rebuild the tunnels, re-attack Israel,” Fluss told Manila Standard in an interview.
“So, we have to make sure this does not happen. And for this, there are specific security arrangements that have to be in place, which are, of course, rejected by Hamas because they want to repeat the October 7 attack. So, it’s very complicated negotiations,” he added.
October 7 will mark the first anniversary of the war between Israel and Hamas. Recently, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recovered the bodies of six hostages kidnapped by Hamas on that day.
This development intensified calls for a ceasefire, with hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting and striking—reportedly the largest demonstrations since the conflict began.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged both sides to finalize a truce, claiming that 90 percent of a deal is ready. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disputed this, asserting that the agreement is “not yet close.”
“There is a lot of pressure on the Israeli government and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to certain compromises… We don’t want a war,” Fluss emphasized.
The Israeli envoy stressed that the outcome of the negotiations will “depend” on several factors: the recovery of hostages, the establishment of security measures to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons, and the possibility of a non-radicalised government in Gaza that is willing to cooperate.
He noted the ongoing negotiations are also affected by internal pressures within Israel, including concerns from the families of hostages.
“There is also a lot of internal pressure in Israel by the families, by a lot of citizens, a lot of people who are so concerned, and rightly so, for the fate of these 101 hostages that we know that probably 46 of them are dead… there is a lot of pressure on our government to achieve this and to bring them home as soon as possible,” he stated.
Despite the challenging circumstances, Fluss remains hopeful that peace can be achieved, referencing Israel’s successful peace agreements with Jordan, Egypt, and several Arab nations.
“So, we’re striving for peace, and we’re looking for peace. We have peace treaties with Jordan, with Egypt, and in the last few years, since the Abraham Accords, we have peace agreements with the United Arab Emirates, with Bahrain, with Morocco,” Fluss said.
“And they are very stable and strong relations that are continuing even until now, which proves to us that it is possible to move away from the conflict,” he underscored.
