The future of the Gaza Strip continues to paralyze life in the Middle East. Hardliners still have little room for maneuver.
Ceasefire talks between Israel and the radical Islamist Hamas have once again failed, despite all efforts by the United States to mediate. Hezbollah’s threatened retaliatory attacks from Lebanon and Iran against Israel add additional pressure to the situation. The danger of a great war was not averted.
No one was surprised that Israel and Hamas did not once again reach a cease-fire agreement. Negotiations across the region were followed in the Arab and Israeli media without much hope or optimism. Some Palestinian media outlets, citing Hamas, said that Israel’s continued shelling of the Gaza Strip was buying time for the talks to establish facts.
Relatives of Hamas hostages who have been protesting in Israel for months have again accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of not wanting a ceasefire and not doing enough to help the abductees. The prevailing view on Arab social media for weeks is that Israel wants to exterminate the Palestinians.
A small project for the Gaza Strip
The interests of the parties involved in the conflict are now far apart. It is, among others, the Philadelphia Corridor, a border area controlled by Egypt and Israel. Israel does not want to hand over this strategically important land to Hamas.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has made renewed efforts in recent days to broker a ceasefire between Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas. This time Hamas stood in the way. Shuttle diplomacy took him from Tel Aviv to Cairo on August 20, 2024.
Keystone/Pool Photo via AP/Kevin Mohatt
A ceasefire does not necessarily mean the end of the war, according to Israel’s wishes. A weakened but still undefeated Hamas, for its part, wants the Israeli armed forces out if possible. Finally, every Israeli hostage and every Palestinian prisoner must be bargained for, if ever there is an exchange.
There is no universally acceptable future plan for the Gaza Strip. Hardliners on both sides continue to fire. Whether Israel and Hamas will ever find a solution cannot be answered by anyone not directly involved with Hamas and the Israeli government. “But if there had been a will, there would have been a ceasefire last November,” estimates SRF foreign editor Susan Bruner. At that time, more than 100 hostages were freed – a month after the October 7 massacre by Hamas in Israel.
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