Hamas responded Saturday to the US cease-fire proposal with a bevy of new conditions, which were swiftly ripped by special envoy Steve Witkoff as “totally unacceptable.”
If a permanent truce is not reached within 60 days, Hamas also wanted to halt the Jewish State from resuming fighting, according to the outlet. And they seemed interested in a longer timeline to conduct hostage and prisoner exchanges with Israel.
“I received the Hamas response to the United States’ proposal. It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward,” Witkoff posted on X. “Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
Does the Hamas leadership really think this tactic is winning any points with the world at-large? Instead, it is aggravating even their supporters who are slowly realizing that Hamas does not really want peace.
Left unresolved in peace talks is whether the Israel Defense Forces will resume their ground assault in the Gaza Strip at the conclusion of the cease-fire period.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said previously that the IDF would “take over all areas” of Gaza, but admitted that avoiding “a situation of famine” for Palestinian civilians was essential.
“People simply won’t support us,” he said in a video posted on his Telegram page on May 22. “We won’t be able to complete the mission of victory.”
Soon, the world’s patience will run out, and with it, Israel will be once again, in the difficult position of resolving this issue to end the war with little more loss of life and and overtaking the entire strip with the force of the IDF and its powerful military might.
No matter what Israel does, it will bear the brunt of the world’s criticism. For a war it did not start.
That is, apparently, what Hamas is counting on. To its detriment.
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