Ever since the US and Israel launched their disastrous war on Iran back in February, the erratic course of the conflict has perhaps been its most frustrating feature. Deals and/or ceasefires are announced one morning only for hostilities to resume a few days later, leaving mediators and observers bewildered. Now, it seems as though the same pattern might be about to play out in Gaza. The twist in this case, however, is that instead of the US and Israel frustrating the world’s hopes for peace it now appears to be Israel frustrating its most important/only friend and patron. Last week, Hamas said it had agreed to a deal announced by US President Donald Trump to end its war with Israel, which includes it handing over its weapons to a Palestinian governing committee and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. This followed a previous announcement that the group would hand over governance of the Gaza Strip to a technocratic committee. Sadly, for the US president, the Israelis are far less enthusiastic. They appear to have no intention of withdrawing from Gaza, one of the main conditions of the disarmament deal.
Israel army chief has said that “proactive” military operations in Gaza will continue and several Israeli politicians have spoken out against the deal, some even saying Hamas must disarm and its tunnel network must be destroyed before any withdrawal while Hamas maintains that Israel must halt attacks first. Considering that the Palestinians are the besieged, illegally occupied party that is suffering a genocide, the latter position clearly seems more reasonable. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a tough re-election fight in October, is not in a good position to do his ‘friend’ Trump any favours. His coalition depends on the support of the hard-right, the faction that seems most opposed to any sort of deal with the Palestinians. As such, Israel seems set to ignore Trump’s desire for a deal and Board of Peace officials who have called on it to halt attacks. In fact, the days after the disarmament announcement was made, it seemed that the Israelis were actually ratcheting up their attacks, with strikes over the past weekend killing at least 18 people. The Zionist state’s depredations elsewhere also appear to be in overdrive, with more than 100 Israeli settlers marching on a village in the area after a settler attack had left four Palestinians dead.
Israeli settlers have also, once again, carried out incursions into Al-Aqsa mosque in recent days, something Pakistan’s foreign minister has strongly denounced. He also rightly warned that such provocations threaten regional peace and stability and risk dragging followers of different faiths into a wider conflict. But would Israel care if it did? Why would it when the world’s most powerful country has seemingly given it a blank cheque to not only go around invading, occupying, attacking and genociding other countries in the region but also foiling its own plans. How Israel is undermining Trump’s plans on Gaza is very familiar to those who have been following the war on Iran. As such, it is not hard to predict how this latest deal will likely end up.
