Truce or no truce: 7 things to know for August 6

1. There are increasing signs that Israel and Hamas are nearing a new long-term ceasefire deal meant to return calm to the volatile border region.

• A Hamas source tells London-based, Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat that Hamas is seeking buy-in from other factions in the Strip for the deal, which would see a halt in attacks on exchange for Israel reopening the Kerem Shalom crossing and increasing the fishing zone off the coast.
• Hamad official Hassam Badran claims to the Hamas-linked Shehab news agency that because the border protests that started on March 30 were not Hamas’s alone, Hamas alone cannot decide on the terms of the ceasefire.
• Interestingly, though, Shehab downplays the talks with Israel and plays up the concurrent talks in Cairo with Fatah on Palestinian reconciliation.
• Haaretz’s Zvi Bar’el writes that the two tracks are linked, with one being an Egyptian proposal mostly focused on reconciliation, the exchange of prisoners and bodies and the cessation of hostilities, and the second forwarded by UN negotiator Nickolay Mladenov and stressing economic development and prisoner exchanges.
• The problem with both, writes Bar’el, is that Hamas “opposes linking the economic agreements and the cease-fire to the exchanges of prisoners and the soldiers’ bodies. Hamas regards those issues as separate – to be negotiated and agreed upon separately.”

2. In Israel, ministers are playing down the chances of a deal if it does not include the exchange of bodies.

• After a high level meeting Sunday, the official message was a laconic “The IDF is ready for any scenario.” But behind the scenes was a much more complex discussion with a simple conclusion — Israel has little faith a deal can come together.
• “The meeting ended with the understanding that there are too many roadblocks on the way to a deal, and it’s doubtful they can be overcome.”
• The biggest roadblock appears to be the issue of returning the captives and the soldiers’ remains.
• “No longer-term deal is on the table without a solution for the return of our citizens and the bodies of our fallen held in the Strip,” Israel Hayom quotes a senior source saying.
• While the paper’s headline makes it seem like Israel won’t agree to anything, the story makes it clear that a smaller deal like the one discussed above is indeed on the table, meaning the Israeli and Palestinian narratives don’t necessarily contradict.

3. The prospect of a deal, even a small one, coming together without the return of solders’ bodies has once again sent emotions surrounding the issue skyrocketing, with the family of Hadar Goldin, whose remains are held in Gaza, setting off a firestorm by claiming Sunday that the prime minister had yelled at them and called them liars.

• The scandal quickly overshadowed any other news regarding a possible ceasefire with Gaza, with the prime minister releasing a statement denying the report, essentially calling them liars again.
• On Sunday, the news was compounded by a report by Channel 10 that Netanyahu’s wife Sara Netanyahu had also called the Goldins to yell at them, which was also followed by a denial.
• Yedioth notes that mother Leah Goldin said Netanyahu needs to emulate US President Donald Trump (who also had his own scandal regarding military bereaved mothers): “Before talks, before any deal, he made the leader of North Korea return the missing captive Americans home. There’s no deal without giving, no rehabilitation without Oron, Hadar, Hisham and Avera first,” she says, referring to the other captives and soldiers whose remains are held in Gaza.

4. Perhaps more than other places, bereaved parents in Israel are seen as sacred cows, and it’s no surprise that a scandal of this magnitude would erupt over claims they were yelled at.

• The last time Leah Goldin was yelled at, by two Likud lawmakers at an emotional Knesset meeting, the two were reprimanded and it set off a round of loud condemnation.
• As sociology professor Udi Lebel told Judah Ari Gross for an article after that episode last year, the status of bereaved families in Israel is unlike that of Gold Star families in the United States or anywhere else in the world. Yes, bereaved families are esteemed and cherished everywhere, but in Israel — one of the few Western countries with compulsory military service — they are also representative.
• The understanding among Israelis is that when bereaved parents “talk about their son, they’re also talking about my son,” Lebel said.
• Unsurprisingly, the only paper not to touch the Goldin accusation in any major way is Israel Hayom, long seen as a Netanyahu mouthpiece.

5. This isn’t the first dust-up between the Goldins (and the families of the other captives) and the Netanyahu administration, though it’s the most open one so far.

• Yedioth’s Alex Fishman writes that the Goldins “could have avoided another round of torment and exchange of blows with the prime minister’s bureau and anonymous cabinet members accusing them of emotional extortion,” had they realized a deal was not about to happen.
• Fishman’s most immediate proof is the fact that Mladenov packed up and went on vacation, and the fact that “Israel does not trust Hamas, neither for a short-term ceasefire nor for a long one.”

6. Haaretz’s lead editorial calls Netanyahu the “inciter in chief” for his attempts to tie the Druze protest to leftist groups, like the New Israel Fund (though association with it shouldn’t put it out of bounds anyway):

• “Netanyahu’s lies and incitement are systematically unraveling Israel’s fabric. Fair-minded people in the Knesset and among the public must unite against this threat before it’s too late,” it reads.
• The broadsheet’s lead story reports that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is warning of a “war between authorities” (the Israeli equivalent of a constitutional crisis) should the High Court shoot down the nation state bill, which she says it can’t do anyway because it has to rule based on the heavyweight basic laws, of which the nation-state law is one.

7. Other major papers lead off with the assassination of a Syrian scientist who headed a research center linked to chemical arms and Iran missile development.

• As Syria and others point a finger at Israel, the papers’ playing up of the news surely doesn’t help debunk the idea that the Jewish state would have no interest in offing Aziz Asbar.
• Israel Hayom says Asbar, whom it calls the thread tying together Syria, Iran and Hezbollah, “didn’t have a chance,” and reports that he was thought of as the key person in developing long-range Iranian missiles in Syria.
• Yedioth reports that he was also considered key in developing chemical and biological weapons, making him a target for a wide array of people who don’t like that stuff.
• While a rebel group claimed responsibility, nobody is quite taking that claim seriously, and Yedioth notes the fact that Asbar was close with Imad Mughniyeh, another figure thought assassinated by Israel in a similar way.
• “The assassination, blamed on Israel, is a clear message that scientists, and not just facilities, are targets for operations,” writes Ronen Bergman in Yedioth.
• Israel Hayom’s Yoav Limor notes, though, that the killing of Asbar might be the last gasp for those seeking to make gains in the chaos of the Syrian civil war.
• “The moment the war officially ends, which will happen soon, everything will become more complicated, from airstrikes to assassinations,” he writes.