he proposes a ceasefire without releasing hostages??

Playing with Israel, Hamas offers to provide a list of hostages on the fourth day of the ceasefire

Hamas proposes a one-week ceasefire that will not include the release of hostages. The terrorist group will provide on the fourth day a list of hostages it is able to release, Kan11 News reported Tuesday evening. Israel demanded to see at least the list of hostages classified as humanitarian cases, but Hamas did not provide it, saying it did not have this information.

According to Kan11, foreign sources say Hamas knows where most of the hostages are, but wants to buy time. The same sources affirm at the same time that Hamas does not condition the ceasefire on the withdrawal of IDF forces from the Gaza Strip and the return of displaced Gazans to their homes in the north of the Gaza Strip. According to the sources, Israel will decide at the end of the seven-day ceasefire whether or not to accept the list of hostages provided by Hamas. Otherwise, the IDF will be free to resume fighting.

It appears that Hamas’ main concern is not to improve the living conditions of Gaza residents or to free its security prisoners, nor to end the war while it still holds power in the Gaza Strip. . Israel, for its part, agrees to end the war, but only on the condition that Hamas no longer holds power in Gaza.

Displaced Gazans inspect their tent after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younes, southern Gaza Strip, November 25, 2024. / Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90

Ynet cites Western diplomats as saying the terrorist organization has recently managed to restore a significant portion of civilian control capabilities in some areas of the Gaza Strip – primarily in the central Gaza Strip where IDF forces are not. not present: the areas of Al-Mawasi, Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah, where around 1.9 million Gazans are concentrated, who constitute around 90% of the strip’s residents.

Israel’s New Year’s celebrations began with alarms going off in Gaza settlements at exactly midnight. The IDF spokesperson reported that two rocket attacks were detected coming from the central Gaza Strip. One of the shots was successfully intercepted and the other fell into an open area. It was Hamas’ way of signaling that it was still alive and capable of inflicting damage on Israel.

Hamas’s ability to rebuild itself surprised many people, who did not understand how the organization was still able to impose order in different areas of the Gaza Strip. American intelligence services even claimed that Hamas had recently managed to recruit some ten thousand new terrorists, mostly young people who had not been recruited until now. The Israeli army rejects this assertion, saying that Hamas is certainly militarily present on the ground and still has some missile-firing capabilities (it fired on Jerusalem on Saturday), but that in terms of command and control, the terrorist organization is over.

As negotiations over a hostage release deal stall, Israeli politicians are considering ordering the Israeli army to occupy the northern city of Gaza, according to Channel 14 news. from the Gaza Strip.

Jerusalem observes with great satisfaction the excellent results of the aggressive maneuver carried out by the IDF in the north of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks: not only the operational results – the elimination and capture of several hundred terrorists – but also the pressure that this maneuver generates within Hamas, which fears losing forever a significant part of the territory of the Gaza Strip.

In this context and following the impasse in negotiations for an agreement, political leaders are considering ordering the IDF to move south and occupy Gaza City in the near future. Such an operation is more feasible now that a ceasefire is in effect in Lebanon and the army has more forces for a large and prolonged maneuver.

A final decision on the matter has not yet been made – the political and security cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday was postponed due to the hospitalization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – but the political and military echelons are beginning to realize that the The only thing that really hurts Hamas is the loss of territory, and so the Israeli army may soon occupy Gaza City and evacuate its residents.

The Israeli right hopes that the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in 19 days will provide the political support needed for a series of measures by the IDF to lead to victory in Gaza.

Photo credit: Oren Cohen/Flash90 Israeli soldiers operating in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, November 28, 2024.

Seeing the videos and photos of those who celebrate the transition to the new calendar year with joy, without judging, I remain perplexed.

How can we rejoice when the hearts of our people are still bleeding, when the pain of our people is so immense and heartbreaking?

While the world lights up with fireworks, how can we ignore the muffled cries of 100 hostages and the tears of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, held by Hamas in the darkness of Gaza?

Can we let our hearts fill with lightness when so many others are crushed under the weight of the absence of their loved ones? How can we dance when every day, IDF soldiers, our sons and our brothers, fall to defend our lives and our land, and without the faces of the bereaved families returning to our thoughts, these parents who will never again have a kiss from their daughter, these children who mourn a father or mother murdered on October 7.

Their grief is ours, their grief belongs to us.

The only thing we can wish for this new year is the return of all the living hostages to their homes, close to theirs, and a dignified burial in the land of Israel for the hostages who are no longer alive. .

And hope that the year 2025 will be that of resurrection.