Hamas rejected Israel’s latest offer for a ceasefire. However, they said they’d continue talking. Bargaining with terrorists is a bad idea.
The Hamas Demands
- Before agreeing to an initial, short-term ceasefire and partial hostage release, Hamas wants assurances that the eventual freeing of all the hostages will bring the end of Israel’s offensive and its full withdrawal from Gaza, the AP reports.
- The rejected Israel proposal included a 40-day truce in return for the release of hostages and the prospect of displaced families being allowed back to northern Gaza.
- It reportedly also involved new wording on restoring calm to satisfy Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire – surrender.
- On Saturday, Axios cited Israeli officials as saying the proposal included a willingness for the return of people to northern Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the east-west corridor that divides the territory and prevents freedom of movement.
- It also included a willingness to “discuss the establishment of a sustainable ceasefire as part of the implementation of the second phase of the deal,” the officials said.
- Israeli officials and a diplomat meanwhile told the New York Times and Financial Times on Monday that Israel was also prepared to reduce the number of hostages released during the first phase to 33, down from 40.
Israel Plans to Attack Rafah
Israel has offered only a pause, after which it would resume its offensives until Hamas is destroyed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his determination to attack Rafah in talks with Blinken on Wednesday.
Blinken put pressure on Hamas, saying it would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal.
“We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken told Israel’s ceremonial President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Tel Aviv.
“There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses. The time is now,” he said.
Obviously, they didn’t care what Blinken said.
Bowing to U.S. pressure to increase aid deliveries, Israel re-opened its Erez crossing into the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday for the first time since it was damaged in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
Evacuating Before the Attack
Blinken said that before Netanyahu attacks Rafah, he must first evacuate all the civilians. That sounds impossible. Oh, but that’s what we did in Germany when we started bombing them, right? Ohh, no wait…
This is an interesting way to conduct a war.
Hamas wants the eventual freeing of all the hostages in exchange for the end of Israel’s offensive and its full withdrawal from Gaza as the second part of the deal.
Israel has offered only a pause, after which it would resume its offensives until Hamas is destroyed.
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