‘The goal is to destroy Gaza’: Why Israel rejects a ceasefire with Hamas

Israel appears to have been blindsided by Hamas’s announcement on Monday that it had agreed to an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal. But the Israeli government quickly made its position clear – the proposal wasn’t something it would agree to, and, to make matters more explicit, its military forces took control of the Palestinian side of Egypt’s border with Gaza in Rafah.

For many analysts, the Israeli government’s message is clear: there will be no permanent ceasefire, and the devastating war on Gaza will continue.

Israel’s bombing of Rafah has the ostensible aim of disbanding Hamas battalions and seizing control of the Gaza-Egyptian crossing, which Israel accuses Hamas of using to smuggle weapons into the besieged enclave. But humanitarian groups have been quick to point out that a closure of the crossing will have disastrous consequences for the more than one million Palestinians living in Rafah, the majority of them displaced.

Israel said that the terms of the Hamas ceasefire differed from previous proposals it had seen. But analysts believe that the wider issue is that Israel is not willing to agree to a permanent ceasefire, even after Hamas releases Israeli captives.

“The last couple of days have proved that Israel was not really negotiating in good faith. The moment that Hamas agreed to a deal, Israel was willing to blow that up by commencing their assault on Rafah,” said Omar Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the Middle East Council for Global Affairs, a think tank in Doha, Qatar.

“The goal is to destroy Gaza in its totality,” he told Al Jazeera.

full article