Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel had already signed off on earlier this month, ultimately scuttling a deal that could have released Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and set a pathway to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The ceasefire agreement that Hamas ended up announcing on May 6 was not what the Qataris or the Americans believed had been submitted to Hamas for a potential final review, the sources said.
The changes made by Egyptian intelligence, the details of which have not been previously reported, led to a wave of anger and recrimination among officials from the US, Qatar and Israel, and left ceasefire talks at an impasse.
I mean, there are some vocal people out there, but I’d give reasonable odds that a lot of them weren’t too keen on Israel in the first place. Getting them more worked up doesn’t change the situation.
I don’t think that the meaningful parties here, the ones who could change the situation, have shown much interest in doing what Hamas would like to see.
What Hamas would need for this to be a successful strategy, I think, is concrete action from outside countries aiming to produce a situation not only more-favorable to Hamas than the pre-war situation, but one so much more favorable that it’s worth the costs of the war for Gaza. I haven’t seen anything that looks to me like that.
Indeed there are a lot of vocal people here who weren’t keen o Israel to begin with. But that shouldn’t justify calling deaths of civilians on either side.
I think this is mostly due to Israel’s insistence that Hamas must perish. Which is why I guess every ceasefire talks are falling through constantly. There’s no future in which Hamas exists that Israel is willing to accept. Sadly a lot of innocent will pay the cost. So whatever happens Israel will double-down on eradicating Hamas while trying to minimize civilian casualties and Hamas will try to survive by doing the opposite.