https://arab.news/gzq6t
Ever since US President Donald Trump forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to embrace his 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, the Israeli premier has been looking for ways to sabotage the deal. In fact, Netanyahu would like nothing more than to turn phase one of Trump’s peace plan into the new status quo in Gaza: a tenuous ceasefire where Israel is free to use feeble excuses to carry out airstrikes and fire artillery shells, while continuing to control and manipulate the flow of much-needed aid to the devastated enclave.
According to Hamas, Egypt and Turkiye, Israel has already violated the ceasefire dozens of times since the Sharm El-Sheikh ceremony last month. Last week, it launched multiple airstrikes across Gaza that killed more than 100 Palestinians, including at least 40 women and children. It has blocked the passage of aid through the Rafah crossing point, while demolishing the remaining houses and buildings under its army’s control behind the so-called yellow line.
Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas has already handed over all living captives to Israel and has been able to retrieve and deliver most of the dead Israelis. Still, Tel Aviv has blamed Hamas for wavering and used the delay in the handing over of the remaining bodies of Israeli captives to breach the ceasefire. In almost all cases, the US has supported the Israeli position and threatened Hamas with destruction. Yet Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have reiterated that the truce is solid and holding.
