Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel had already signed off on earlier this month, ultimately scuttling a deal that could have released Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and set a pathway to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The ceasefire agreement that Hamas ended up announcing on May 6 was not what the Qataris or the Americans believed had been submitted to Hamas for a potential final review, the sources said.
The changes made by Egyptian intelligence, the details of which have not been previously reported, led to a wave of anger and recrimination among officials from the US, Qatar and Israel, and left ceasefire talks at an impasse.
I mean, there are some vocal people out there, but I’d give reasonable odds that a lot of them weren’t too keen on Israel in the first place. Getting them more worked up doesn’t change the situation.
I don’t think that the meaningful parties here, the ones who could change the situation, have shown much interest in doing what Hamas would like to see.
What Hamas would need for this to be a successful strategy, I think, is concrete action from outside countries aiming to produce a situation not only more-favorable to Hamas than the pre-war situation, but one so much more favorable that it’s worth the costs of the war for Gaza. I haven’t seen anything that looks to me like that.