Exactly, and that was a disaster in every sense of the word. Which is why Hamas is refusing the current offer (not like Israel likes it very much either), because the promise that “we’ll start with a temporary ceasefire and turn it into something more enduring” was made before in November and in the end Hamas lost half their hostages for a whole lot of nothing. Even a random guy watching from the sidelines like me can tell; even if the 6-week ceasefire succeeds and becomes permanent, it’ll come at the cost of Israel occupying Gaza, or at least half of it, and that’s assuming it succeeds and Israel doesn’t continue doing their thing in six weeks.
PS: I don’t remember when it was either, could’ve been December.
Well, they got a few hundred prisoners released (release of prisoners was their stated goal for their field trip) and a few weeks pause in the fighting, which I imagine they could use from a strategic pov. But it’s obvious that Israel considers those 100 hostages only secondary to taking out Hamas. Which puts the latter in quite of a pickle in these negotiations. And they can’t kill them because that would erode their international support
Exactly, and that was a disaster in every sense of the word. Which is why Hamas is refusing the current offer (not like Israel likes it very much either), because the promise that “we’ll start with a temporary ceasefire and turn it into something more enduring” was made before in November and in the end Hamas lost half their hostages for a whole lot of nothing. Even a random guy watching from the sidelines like me can tell; even if the 6-week ceasefire succeeds and becomes permanent, it’ll come at the cost of Israel occupying Gaza, or at least half of it, and that’s assuming it succeeds and Israel doesn’t continue doing their thing in six weeks.
PS: I don’t remember when it was either, could’ve been December.
Well, they got a few hundred prisoners released (release of prisoners was their stated goal for their field trip) and a few weeks pause in the fighting, which I imagine they could use from a strategic pov. But it’s obvious that Israel considers those 100 hostages only secondary to taking out Hamas. Which puts the latter in quite of a pickle in these negotiations. And they can’t kill them because that would erode their international support
The goal was and still is the destruction of Hamas’s ability to carry out further attacks. Rescuing hostages was always a side quest.