A senior Egyptian who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity says terror group Hamas has rejected Israel’s proposal for a two-month ceasefire in which Hamas would release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners.
The official says Hamas leaders have also refused to leave Gaza and are demanding that Israel fully withdraw from the territory and allow Palestinians to return to their homes.
Under Israel’s proposal, Yahya Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.
The official says Egypt and Qatar, which have brokered past agreements between Israel and Hamas, are developing a multi-stage proposal to try to bridge the gaps. The proposal would include ending the war, releasing the hostages and putting forth a vision for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I don’t think Israel is playing this game the way Hamas and other terrorists expected them to play it. Didn’t Hezbollah fighters recently complain that Israel is now sometimes striking without warning them?
I think that Israel is playing the game exactly the way that Iran wants them to. The unreasonable level of violence against civilians is isolating Israel diplomatically and deeply tainting US reputation for relatively little cost.
Netanyahu is playing this game because his survival depends on it. As soon as war ends, he is kicked out and a bunch of judicial processes fall on him that he has been avoiding with his immunity. He has a vested interest in prolonging the conflict.
Hamas has a vested interest in prolonging the conflict too, because it means that they can be “freedom fighters” and “martyrs” instead of terrorists, and assassins, and means a reasonable amount of people flock to them. It also gives them legitimacy compared to the Palestinian Authority
Hamas and Oct 7 has ~72% approval from the Palestinian public, so I guess the destruction of Gaza is what most everyone wants? Baffling.
As for Bibi, his asymmetrical response is not jeopardizing US relations so much as he’s jeopardizing Biden’s second term. Trump will probably give Israel a blank check and may even want to push the big red missile button himself.
You don’t understand that an imprisoned people would support people fighting their oppressors?
Hamas are not idiots, the response is exactly what they wanted. A whole new generation of resistance is being bombed into existence now and Israel is alienating its closest allies to do it, for Hamas that’s a victory. They expected Israel to kill a bunch of random civilians in a brutal response to their attack, it’s not a surprise for them.
Sure thousands of civilians under our rule died as our human shields from a war we provoked, our critical infrastructure was destroyed because we used it for war, thousands of our soldiers were killed, and we didn’t achieve our stated objectives, but future generations are going to be really mad about it so I consider that a total victory.
-Hamas (not idiots)
Yes, Hamas is immoral and does idiotic things from our perspective but it’s a mistake to believe that makes them idiots. They didn’t just stumble into attacking Israel, and they weren’t naive about how Israel would respond.