Hamas has recruited almost as many fighters as it has lost in Israel’s war on Gaza, a US official said.
Hamas has recruited almost as many new fighters as it has lost during its 16-month full-scale war with Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Washington’s top diplomat made the assertion during a speech Tuesday in which he reiterated the Biden administration’s position that Hamas cannot be defeated by “a military campaign alone.”
These comments come amid hopes that a ceasefire agreement is near. However, plans for the post-conflict period remain vague, amid complex and competing ambitions.
“Without a clear alternative, a post-conflict plan and a credible political horizon for the Palestinians, Hamas, or something equally odious and dangerous, will push back,” Blinken told the Atlantic Council think tank.
“This is exactly what has happened in northern Gaza since October 7. Every time Israel ends its military operations and withdraws, Hamas militants regroup and reappear because there is nothing else to fill the void. This is a recipe for lasting insurgency and perpetual war. »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly declared that “total victory” over Hamas and the destruction of the armed group is a major goal of his country’s war in Gaza.
However, analysts and even Israeli military and political officials have questioned the likelihood of achieving this goal.
Last month, Yair Golan, a former lawmaker and current chairman of the Israel Democrats, said the war must end “with a political settlement.”
Post-conflict blues
Speaking about the ongoing negotiations, Blinken said: “I believe we will get a ceasefire.”
On Tuesday, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said negotiations to end the conflict were in their final stages, while warning against setting expectations too high until until there is an official announcement.
The ceasefire agreement currently being worked out is expected to include three stages, involving a cessation of hostilities and the exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners.
The final phase is expected to include discussions around an alternative government to Hamas and plans to rebuild Gaza, which has been devastated.
However, the plans are vague. The Palestinians, Arab states and Israel have yet to agree on a vision for post-war Gaza.
Blinken said Washington believes the Palestinian Authority should invite its international partners to “help establish and lead an interim administration for the enclave.”
Meanwhile, Israel would need security guarantees and billions of dollars would need to be found for reconstruction.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, speaking Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, said that a “cease fire is the prerequisite for peace, but it is not peace. »
“We must move forward now towards a two-state solution. And since one of the two states exists, which is Israel, we must build the other state, which is Palestine,” he said.