Done Talking: Israel Orders Mossad Negotiators Out of Qatar.
After Hamas violated the previous operational ‘pause’ three different ways on Thursday, Israel returned almost immediately to full war operations in Gaza. Almost as quickly, the US and other nations started pressing Israel to negotiate a new ‘pause,’ while Antony Blinken scolded Israelis over civilian losses in a war Hamas started by massacring Israeli civilians. How long, many wondered, would it be before the US pressured Israel into yet another ‘pause’ and eventually a cease-fire?
It may be longer than many thought. Earlier this morning, Reuters reported that Mossad negotiators had begun talks in Qatar over another cessation and hostages-for-prisoners deal:
A team from Israel’s Mossad intelligence services was in Doha on Saturday for talks with Qatari mediators for another pause in fighting in Gaza, a source briefed on the visit said.
The Qatar-mediated talks focused on the potential release of new categories of Israeli hostages other than women and children and the parameters of a truce, which the source said differed to the truce agreement that collapsed on Friday.
A short while later, Benjamin Netanyahu put an end to that process:
The Mossad says that a negotiating team that had been in Qatar has been ordered home with talks on extending a truce reaching a “dead end.”
“Due to the dead end in negotiations, and following instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad head David Barnea ordered the negotiating team in Doha to return home,” says a rare statement from Netanyahu’s office issued on behalf of the spy agency.
“The Hamas terror group did not fulfill its obligations under the agreement that included releasing all the women and children that were on the list provided to Hamas that had authorized it,” the statement says.
According to the ceasefire agreement, Hamas committed to releasing all the women and children it was holding hostage in exchange for a pause in fighting for up to nine days. More than 80 women and children were released over the last week as part of this process.
Yes, but: In the hours leading to the end of the pause, Hamas did not send a list of hostages it would release, the three Israeli officials said.
Instead, Hamas sent messages through Qatari and Egyptian mediators proposing to start a discussion on what concessions Israel would be willing to give in return for the release of elderly men, the officials added. …
Mossad chief David Barnea, the lead negotiator on the Israeli side, sent a message to Hamas through the mediators on Thursday night that stressed Israel was “not playing games” and that if the women were not released, the fighting would resume, a senior Israeli official said.
Not long after that Hamas launched a rocket from Gaza for the first time since the pause started. An hour later the ceasefire completely broke down.
Ravid skips over an important event in the middle of this. Also on Thursday, Hamas took credit for a terror attack in Jerusalem, a shooting that killed three people at a bus stop and injured six more before the two terrorists were killed. Israel had tried to overlook brief skirmishes in Gaza, but a terror attack in Jerusalem could not possibly be ignored, especially in the current political climate.
That attack alone violated the ‘pause’ even without the perfidy surrounding the hostage lists, and it made clear that negotiations with Hamas are worthless. They do not seek any kind of peace, or any kind of pause except a unilateral pause by Israel. And these negotiations do nothing but play into Hamas’ hostaging strategy while they reset for the next big attack on Israel and Jews.
Instead, Israel appears entirely focused on their war mission to destroy Hamas. Today that focus falls mainly on Khan Younis and Hamas’ infrastructure there, presumed to be Hamas’ fallback center of operations after the fall of Gaza City:
The Israel Defense Forces carried out “extensive” strikes against the Hamas terror group in south Gaza overnight and into Saturday, while calling on Palestinians on Saturday morning to evacuate from zones near the Israeli border, indicating ground operations in the southern part of the Strip were due to start soon.
In a statement Saturday morning, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes against over 400 targets across the Gaza Strip in the past day since Hamas violated the truce and fighting resumed.
Ground, air and naval forces were all involved in the operations.
The military said fighter jets attacked over 50 targets in the Khan Younis area in “extensive” strikes in the southern part of the enclave.
The IDF has already drawn up plans for a ground assault on Khan Younis. Previously, the IDF had only launched a few precision-targeted strikes on Hamas assets in the southern Gaza city, likely to preserve the ability to negotiate for the hostages. A full-on ground assault will amplify the message that Netanyahu sent to Hamas, Qatar, and the US: The time for talking is over. This is the war Hamas and Gaza have not only wanted but repeatedly started over the last 17 years, and Israel intends to finish it once and for all. Hamas and Gaza can either fight to the death, or capitulate to Israel and surrender its leadership.
