Hamas is being too clever by half. For months, it has dragged out ceasefire talks in order to push off an Israeli military operation in Rafah – which the group knows will deal it a devastating blow and possibly cause it to finally lose its grip on power in Gaza. And for months, Israel has played along, agreeing to postpone the operation time and again in an effort to bring its hostages home by means of a deal. Now that Israel is poised to launch such an operation, Hamas has presented a ceasefire proposal it knows Israel won’t accept – yet another delay tactic. This time, however, Israel is signaling that it won’t be playing along: both Netanyahu and Gantz have said the Rafah operation will proceed as planned, even as Israel sends its negotiating team back to Cairo. We’ll see how clever Hamas leaders feel in a couple of days.
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