Gaza ceasefire

An overlong war led to huge unnecessary losses in fallen soldiers and the death of up to 40 hostages, former lead hostage negotiations coordinator Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon said.

According to the IDF statement, the four terrorists had been advancing attacks against IDF troops operating in the strip.

In the Middle East’s current wars, a ceasefire often marks not the end of the fighting, but the start of a new fight over what kind of fighting is still allowed.

Despite the crisis, the conditions for a diplomatic breakthrough may be emerging beneath the surface – if Washington is willing to rethink the sequencing and political assumptions behind its strategy

“At this stage, the principal obstacle to full implementation remains Hamas’ refusal to accept verified decommissioning," Nickolay Mladenov, the High Representative for Gaza, told the UNSC.

The UN Security Council has recognized the board, though many major powers have not joined Washington's main Middle Eastern allies and some middling and smaller states in signing up.

Security officials say Izz ad-Din al-Haddad violated his own rules after months in Gaza’s tunnels, exposing patterns that helped Israeli intelligence close in.

A senior military source told Maariv that Azzam al-Hayya’s "death is of no interest to us, and if he was harmed, it was because he was somewhere he should not have been."

An Israeli source told the Post that Israel is coordinating with the Board of Peace and the US administration to plan the next steps following Hamas’s refusal.

The terrorist organization has said that it would only give up weapons after the full implementation of phase one of the agreement, which requires Israel to withdraw from Gaza.