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Israel’s military campaign cannot wipe out Hamas: US officials
In 10 months of war in Gaza, Israel’s military has considerably weakened Hamas, but continued bombings are now yielding diminishing returns and exacerbating civilian suffering, according to senior US officials quoted by The New York Times.
“Hamas is largely depleted but not wiped out, and the Israelis may never achieve the total annihilation of Hamas,” said Ralph Goff, an ex-CIA official who worked in the Middle East, to the US newspaper.
Joseph L Votel, who previously headed the army’s US Central Command, said while Israel has been able to “disrupt” Hamas and take out many of its leaders, only negotiations could bring about the release of Israeli captives still in the enclave.
Netanyahu cannot be only decision-maker on ceasefire: Former Israeli PM
As Qatari, US and Egyptian officials gear up to mediate the latest round of talks between Israel and Hamas, Ehud Barak, Israel’s former prime minister says that current PM Netanyahu is not authorised to be the sole decision-maker on whether a deal is acceptable to Israel.
“I expect the negotiation team to demand that Netanyahu bring decisions to the cabinet,” Barak said, in comments carried by Israeli Army Radio. “This is the structure of the regime in Israel. Netanyahu must not be allowed to make all the decisions on his own, he is not authorized to do that.”
“If Netanyahu continues to refuse, I expect [the negotiating team] to also address the public,” he added.
Netanyahu has been accused by observers and analysts, both Israeli and international, of sabotaging previous rounds of ceasefire talks.
Netanyahu turned Israel into ‘pariah state’, says Israeli general
A retired Israeli general has accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of intentionally misleading the public about the Gaza war for his own personal interests.
In an op-ed for Israel’s Maariv newspaper, General Yitzhak Brik said that despite being aware that Israel’s military cannot fully root out Hamas during the war, Netanyahu has continued to insist on marching towards total victory so he can stay in power.
“Neither the well-being of the people nor the security of the state concerns Netanyahu, but only his personal survival at any cost,” wrote Brik.
He added: “The almost year-long conflict has caused us to lose our standing in the world. The state of Israel has become a pariah state, isolated and regarded with disdain, and even our closest friends in Europe are turning their backs on us.”
‘High stakes but low expectations’ for today’s ceasefire talks
The parties that are going to be involved in these talks are the US, with a delegation led by CIA chief Bill Burns, Israel, with a delegation headed by Mossad chief David Barnea, Egypt, led by its intelligence chief, and of course, Qatar, represented by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
The question is how involved is Hamas going to be in the coming hours. Hamas released a statement saying they do not want to enter into new negotiations. They would like to be presented with the framework they say they agreed to in early July – from the deal presented by US President Joe Biden in late May.
There’s a lot of questions about how exactly all of this is going to unfold. The atmosphere around these talks is one of high stakes but low expectations. But there’s a very concerted effort by the mediators to make sure something productive can be achieved in the coming hours.
