Israel says that a successful Rafah operation and military pressure in general are leading Hamas to show a greater willingness to compromise and to reach a deal to release Israeli hostages in exchange for a pause in the war in Gaza.
The Biden administration and much of the world opposed Israel’s entry into Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas, near the Egyptian border. But one million civilians left the area, and Israel has achieved most of its objectives.
Hamas recently dropped a demand that Israel agree to a permanent ceasefire as a condition of a hostage deal. The reason, analysts say, may be that Israel has simply broken the morale of all but the leadership of the terror group.
The Associated Press reports (via the Jerusalem Post):
Israel’s war on Hamas and the destruction that ensued in the Gaza Strip following nine months of fighting may have impacted Hamas’s decision to drop last week its hostage deal negotiation demand that Israel ends the war, sources in the Middle East and the US told Associated Press on Monday.
The report also revealed, via a Middle Eastern official, the content of messages penned by Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, which called on the group’s Qatar leaders to accept US President Joe Biden’s outline for a hostage deal.
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The communications also reportedly suggest a disjunction between [Gaza-based Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar and Hamas leaders in Gaza regarding the desire to achieve a deal.
Sinwar is thought to be in hiding, deep underground, where Hamas is also thought to be holding the 120 hostages still in captivity — roughly half of whom are believed to be alive. Until now, Israel has been reluctant to risk the high number of casualties, including hostages, that would likely result from sending soldiers into the tunnels. That has allowed Hamas to persist — but its troops above ground are demoralized.
The Post elaborated:
Lt. Oriel Mashiach, commander of the Sabar Battalion in the Givati Brigade, provided some insight to Maariv on Sunday into the combat operations in Rafah: “We are conducting very intense combat. Rafah is devoid of civilians, and what we see are the terrorists.
“We encounter a weary and demoralized enemy,” he emphasized. “We have full control of the area and it seems the enemy struggles to fight. We face individuals who move independently. They operate on their own, tired and exhausted; some surrender upon seeing us, while others engage in suicidal actions.”
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The IDF estimated that Hamas’s military wing suffered a particularly severe blow in the nine months of fighting, with many of its units disbanded and destroyed. This is one of the factors affecting Yahya Sinwar’s conduct in negotiating a ceasefire and the return of the captives.
Amid reports of progress in negotiations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a public list of non-negotiable demands that Israel is continuing to pursue, as the sides move toward a possible deal (via Government Press Office):
1. Any deal will allow Israel to resume fighting until all of objectives of the war have been achieved.
2. There will be no smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt to the Gaza border.
3. There will be no return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip.
4. Israel will maximize the number of living hostages who will be released from Hamas captivity.
Asked Monday whether Israel was itself exhausted by the war, and therefore more willing to compromise, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said: “Nothing will keep us away from our objective to destroy this terror organization.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
