Hamas Sees No Point in Negotiations – Last Hope Fades in Gaza

All hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza are fading after the revelation of a plan to take over the Gaza Strip, as a senior Hamas official noted on Tuesday that conducting negotiations aimed at agreeing on a new ceasefire with Tel Aviv no longer makes any sense. The goals of the Israeli government are to dismantle Hamas, whose attack against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, sparked the war, and to return the hostages taken that day who remain under complete isolation. The extensive Israeli military counter-operations have turned much of the Gaza Strip into piles of rubble, costing tens of thousands of lives and causing a humanitarian disaster. Israel, which has placed the approximately 2.4 million residents of Gaza under siege, has prohibited any humanitarian aid from entering since February 2nd. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, judged it ‘impossible to defend’ the situation in the Gaza Strip yesterday. ‘Humanitarian aid must resume immediately,’ he noted through X, informing about his telephonic discussion with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. This latest Israeli announcement of a new military campaign aimed at the ‘takeover’ of the Gaza Strip includes the mass displacement of its population inland. ‘Gaza will be completely destroyed,’ stated Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, when asked about his vision for the post-war situation. Any attempt by Israel to annex parts of the Gaza Strip would be ‘unacceptable,’ warned the UK government. Despite absolute deadlock, the state of Qatar, one of the countries mediating between Israel and Hamas, assured that it continues its efforts towards signing a new ceasefire agreement. In Gaza, political protection reported 31 dead and ‘dozens injured’ in a double Israeli bombardment against a school turned into a shelter for internally displaced people in Burij, central Gaza. In Israel, military authorities sent tens of thousands of special call-up papers to reservists ahead of the expansion of operations in the Gaza Strip. However, an officer spoke of a ‘window’ for negotiation regarding hostage release by the end of Donald Trump’s Middle East period, from May 13th to 16th. Later yesterday, the U.S. president promised a ‘very important announcement’ for the region without revealing any details. The attack by Hamas into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, had cost the lives of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to a tally by the French Agency based on official data. Since then, the wide-scale Israeli military operations in retaliation in the Gaza Strip have claimed at least 52,615 lives, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas government considered reliable by the UN.