The world sighing a collective sigh of relief when a Hamas-Israeli ceasefire eventually came into effect on January 19th. However, recent Israeli attacks on Gaza have cast that peace agreement and its related negotiations off.
The attacks came after Hamas ‘ “repeated denials” to “release our victims,” according to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s company. The organization also rejected all proposals made by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East minister, Steve Witkoff.
Hamas claimed it had not received the degrees of humanitarian assistance, house, and fuel it had agreed to provide in the terms of the ceasefire actually before Israel stopped providing humanitarian support and power to Gaza in the last two months. This distracts from a more important matter, though.
This ceasefire usually resembled a hurt contract more than an equal party negotiated agreement. Israel has always been the group with the most political and military advantage.
And while the second 42-day peace saw the successful launch of 33 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for roughly 1,800 Arab prisoners, it also gave Israel the opportunity to use it for its unique political and military objectives.
The parties to a conflict frequently worry about using ceasefires for their own ends, according to the most popular standard concern about them.
Non-state armed organizations, like Hamas, are normally concerned about using the halt in violence to purchase time to regroup, regroup, and resurrect.
However, nations like Israel possess this skill as well. Says can use this time to maneuver in the world, a place mostly denied to non-state actors, even though they have standing armies that might not need to recover and regroup in the same manner.
Trump’s rise to power in the US appears to have given the Israeli government permission to act in way that were probably out of the realm of previous US president who were also largely in favor of Israel’s activities.
This includes the attempt to evict Gaza’s people from the band. Trump consultant Jared Kushner and Israeli officials raised this idea as a posse of humanitarian aid earlier in the conflict.
Trump has since called for the US to “take control” of the coastal strip and designate it as the” Riviera of the Middle East” and to travel Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, or perhaps other parts of Africa.
This program may appear to be a war crime on the face of it. Even if it is not fully implemented, Trump’s promotion of it shows how political ideas that were once seen as intolerable can take on a life of their own, despite the fact that it is being supported by him after many years of private Israeli and foreign condemnation.
political and military maneuvering
In Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, and Syria, Israel has also used the ceasefire to pursue larger political and military objectives. Israel has continued to attack targets in the strip despite the ceasefire’s overall reduction of violence in Gaza.
Additionally, it has increased settlement construction and carried out increasingly violent operations in the West Bank. Additionally, there have been egregious attacks on Israeli citizens who are Palestinian.
And even though nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners were freed during the ceasefire, Israel was holding more than 9,600 Palestinians in custody on” security grounds” at the end of 2024. Israel is detention in administrative detention for a number of thousands more Palestinians, which means they are awaiting trial or being charged.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was also accelerated during the ceasefire in its efforts to evict it from its headquarters in East Jerusalem. Additionally, the Israeli government has also proposed more stringent laws intended to restrain the activities of Israeli human rights organizations.
The ceasefire, in terms of military terms, arguably relieved some of Israel’s pressure, giving it more time to bolster its territorial and security victories against Hezbollah in Syria and southern Lebanon.
Two deadlines for Israeli forces ‘ withdrawal from southern Lebanon have passed in the last two months. Instead, Israel has suggested establishing a buffer zone on Lebanese territory, starting with the destruction of villages, cutting up olive trees, and constructing semi-permanent outposts along the border.
In a February speech, Netanyahu also urged the” complete demilitarization of southern Syria” following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. Israel Katz, the country’s defense minister, stated this month that Israel would continue to send its troops to southern Syria to “protect” residents from any threats coming from the new Syrian regime.
There is a limit to what people can endure, despite the fact that Palestinians are known for their sumud, which is typically translated as steadfastness or tenacity.
Gazans may have to put the survival and well-being of themselves and their families before their desire to remain in Palestine because of the war and subsequent ceasefires.
It is generally believed that ceasefires have a humanitarian and positive nature. However, ceasefires are not all-encompassing solutions. In reality, they are the least likely option for putting an end to war’s violence for a brief period of time.
A ceasefire was never going to be the solution to the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, it has emerged as a component of the issue.
The University of Melbourne’s Marika Sosnowski is a postdoctoral research fellow.
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.