The News
Hamas on Thursday rejected Israel’s offer of a ceasefire deal, calling instead for a complete end to the war.
The Israeli government had proposed a 45-day truce in exchange for the release of 10 of the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack: 59 remain unaccounted for, and 24 are believed to still be alive.
Hamas said it would only return all the hostages in exchange for a permanent end to hostilities.
Israel resumed its military campaigns in Gaza a month ago after ceasefire negotiations stalled, and has since blocked all humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.
SIGNALS
The war in Gaza is increasingly unpopular in Israel
Hamas’ rejection of the deal comes as more Israelis are opposed to a war that many see as “no longer motivated by [the country’s] security interests,” France 24 noted: 69% of Israelis in a recent poll said they supported a deal to end the war for the hostages’ return, and more than 1,000 Israeli army reservists signed a petition calling for an immediate end to the conflict. A “lack of faith in the war’s righteousness [...] is undermining the core justification for inflicting harm on innocent civilians,” the left-leaning Haaretz argued. Still, the renewed offensive has “failed to galvanize [Israel’s] political left,” a former diplomat wrote, and the government seems prepared to take “a risk on the hostage issue to achieve what is sees as the critical goal of removing Hamas from power,” one analyst said.
Israel’s buffer zones are expanding
Israel says the renewed offensive in Gaza is to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages but “the current operations have turned into a redrawing of Gaza, foreshadowing complete [Israeli] control of the Strip,” Le Monde wrote: Israel has extended its buffer zone within the enclave from 300 to 1,500 meters wide by “deliberately, methodically, and systematically [annihilating] whatever was within,” an Israeli NGO of IDF veterans wrote. Netanyahu’s government is “politically in love with the idea of taking over” territory, a retired IDF general argued: Israel has also captured land in the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon. For Israel’s hard right “the goal is not merely to protect the country but to expand it,” The Economist wrote.
International pressure on Israel has waned
With US President Donald Trump’s silence in the face of Israel’s renewed military offensive in Gaza, and European leaders distracted by Trump’s trade war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces “fewer restraints on Gaza than ever,” The New York Times wrote. Though France’s new plan to recognize Palestinian statehood “exemplifies the growing tension between Israel and some of its closest allies,” Bloomberg wrote, it could simply turn into “another empty gesture to save face,” a former Palestine Liberation Organization adviser argued in Al Jazeera. An Arab peace plan agreed in March “creates more questions than answers,” while a Chatham House analyst argued that “only Washington can force Netanyahu to negotiate again.”