Hamas-Israel war rages on, unabated despite Biden

Last month, Hamas ambushers fired a rocket-propelled grenade into a Gaza Strip residential building where Israeli soldiers were laying explosives to blow up the place later. The RPG round detonated the explosives prematurely, brought the building down and killed 21 Israeli troops.

It was the largest one-day loss of life among Israeli troops so far in the four-month war. Beyond that, it highlighted the reality that rival forces are fighting hard even while American diplomats are busily trying to arrange a ceasefire and organize post-war peace talks.

Israel is dedicated to maintaining control of Gaza for the foreseeable future. Its forces are clearing a buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip border to put as much distance as possible between them and Hamas, which triggered the current combat by breaching the border fence between Israel and the territory.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also plans to station soldiers in the enclave after war’s end while setting up a cooperative government of Palestinians, aided by some sort of new international agency to supply food, fuel and other day-to-day necessities to civilians.

Hamas, while still fighting, is focusing on a more distant and perhaps limited scenario: to remain a player in a post-war period when United States-sponsored peace talks might take place. With its military control reduced in the face of Israel’s military onslaught, Hamas decided to respond to a US call for ways to ease the conflict in the short run and end it forever in the long run.

Hamas leaders provided mediators with a proposal for a ceasefire to last more than four months – time to facilitate an exchange of captives with Israel. It also demanded that Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza.