Reports of a possible cease-fire deal coming from the Biden admin seem to be doubtful….
The Israeli Military has continued to hunt down senior Hamas fighters and take them out….
Even as some in Israel’s national security community would like a cease-fire and hostage/POW exchange…
The Netanyahu War council wants to keep hunting Hamas…..
A dozen or more rounds of mediated negotiations, a UN resolution, pressure from Washington and other powers, and much else has failed to push either the leaders of Israel or Hamas to make the concessions necessary to stop the 10-month-old war.
The reason for this is simple. Days of detailed argument over the exact parameters of any agreement obscure the fact that a deal can only be done when the most influential decision- makers on each side believe that the time is right to end the fighting. At the moment, this does not appear to be the case.
Despite the immense damage done to Israel’s international reputation and its relations with Washington, the economic cost, its 300-plus military fatalities, the seething anger in the occupied West Bank and more, Benjamin Netanyahu still appears convinced that there is more to be gained from continuing the offensive Israel launched into Gaza last October than halting it.
After a slow start, Israel has killed a significant number of senior Hamas military personnel in the territory. These include Mohammed Deif, its military chief in Gaza, and his deputy, Marwan Issa. Dozens of lower-level commanders have died in Israeli strikes.
This has hurt Hamas badly, and gone some way to mitigate the fear and trauma in Israel after the militant Islamist organisation’s surprise attacks on 7 October last year that killed almost 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and led to about 250 being taken hostage.
Israeli security officials believe too that the country has restored the deterrence that has been central to its strategic defence for decades….
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But Netanyahu is in no hurry to do a deal. One factor may be the prospect of the collapse of his ruling coalition as rightwingers adamantly opposed to concessions peel away. This would leave the veteran politician potentially facing prison if continuing corruption trials end badly for him.
Another may be Israeli public opinion. Polls show Netanyahu remains deeply unpopular and a substantial proportion of Israelis favour a deal to bring back the hostages. But the ratings of Netanyahu’s Likud party have ticked up again in recent weeks. If Israel managed to kill Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the 7 October attacks, the political and legal prospects of the prime minister would brighten.
Sinwar does not appear to want a deal either. His 40-year career within Islamist militancy has been marked by unremitting dedication to the eventual destruction of Israel and much brutal violence….
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An Israeli airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday resulted in the deaths of two senior Hamas militants, according to a joint statement from the Israel Security Agency and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reports Reuters.
Israeli authorities identified the deceased militants as Ahmed Abu Ara and Rafet Dawasi, both from the northern district of Jenin in the West Bank.
The Israeli statement claimed that the two were involved in planning a shooting attack on August 11 in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, which resulted in the death of an Israeli civilian, Yonatan Deutsch.
Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed the deaths of two of its fighters in the Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in Jenin. The group had previously claimed responsibility for the August 11 attack, stating that its West Bank-based operatives had killed an Israeli soldier at close range near the Mehola settlement in the Jordan Valley before safely retreating to their bases….
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- Hamas official Osama Hamdan tells Al Jazeera that “everyone understands” now that Netanyahu and the Israeli government are not willing to agree on a ceasefire deal.
- Israeli negotiators expressed “cautious optimism” about moving towards an agreement on a Gaza ceasefire after talks in Doha.
- A new Israeli order tells residents of parts of the Maghazi refugee camp to flee, further shrinking Gaza’s “humanitarian zone” for the second day in a row.
- The Israeli military has bombed a warehouse sheltering displaced Palestinians in the az-Zawayda area of central Gaza, killing 15 members of one family, including nine children.
- The Palestinian Health Ministry says two men were killed when an Israeli drone struck a car in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
- One person has been killed in an Israeli attack on a motorcycle near Lebanon’s Tyre….
Aug 17, 2024 – ISW Press
Hamas has rejected optimism from US and international mediators that a ceasefire-hostage agreement is close to being reached.
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