Peace deal: dare we hope?

We have to hope Maddy

Yes, we do Annie. 🙏

Hope and 🙏🏽

From what I understand, Hamas have agreed to cease fire, release all the hostages and get into talks.

Israel, I think has another agenda as it is pushing as far south as it can - I’m not sure why as it isn’t succeeding in it’s stated aim of riding the area of Hamas, all it seems to be succeeding in doing is to destroy the whole of the country, leaving millions homeless and completely ruining the infrastructure whilst killing and maiming thousands more people.

I am hoping Blinken can pressure Israel into a ceasefire, but as yet Israel has not agreed to a ceasefire.

Would love a peace deal for Ukraine too, a now forgotten war, on these pages, with many children killed by Putins bombs, and much nearer to home.

Thank you for update Whitewave.
I agree Freya, there needs to be a ceasefire in Ukraine too.
It’s a truly terrible situation for all these people in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine at this time.
All these people deserve peace.

Oh well it was nice while it lasted.

Those poor, poor people.

What’s happened Whitewave?

Netanyahu has turned down the Hamas offer and said that they - Israel- will not stop until complete victory.

I’m not clear exactly what he means, although he did say that they will destroy Hamas, but didn’t mention Hamas in other areas etc. Israel will continue to fight its way to the Egyptian border. I’m not clear what happens to the Palestinians in this scenario.

He also stated that Israel will always remain a presence in Gaza - so clearly indicating that he does not support a two state solution.

Oh dear! What will happen to the hostages now? Surely Netanyahu can’t remain in position for much longer.

Netanyahu's response is, sadly, predictable.

Farzanah

Oh dear! What will happen to the hostages now? Surely Netanyahu can’t remain in position for much longer.

TBh he didn’t seem to mention them, but perhaps I missed it.

Maybe others heard?

If Hamas genuinely wanted a ceasefire they would hand over all the hostages and those who took part in the Oct 7 massacre. But they don't, because they're rather pretend to be "victims", let the Palestinian people suffer, and blame Israel.

I'm not Jewish and I'm not a Muslim, but I know right from wrong - If you hit me, you don't get to decide how hard I hit you back.

He said there is no alternative

Hamas created miles of tunnels, but didn't offer shelter from bombing. They had masses of aid, but stole it for their own nefarious purposes and withheld it from those it was meant to help, with, it seems, UNWRA turning a blind eye.

I really hope so. But with Netanyahu in charge I doubt it.

Urmstongran

If Hamas genuinely wanted a ceasefire they would hand over all the hostages and those who took part in the Oct 7 massacre. But they don't, because they're rather pretend to be "victims", let the Palestinian people suffer, and blame Israel.

I'm not Jewish and I'm not a Muslim, but I know right from wrong - If you hit me, you don't get to decide how hard I hit you back.

And what of those who hit first ? Palestinians robbed of their homes.

History has taught these men nothing. It’s the “wee skint folk” that are suffering. I know that’s out of context but it applies here too.

Urmstongran

If Hamas genuinely wanted a ceasefire they would hand over all the hostages and those who took part in the Oct 7 massacre. But they don't, because they're rather pretend to be "victims", let the Palestinian people suffer, and blame Israel.

I'm not Jewish and I'm not a Muslim, but I know right from wrong - If you hit me, you don't get to decide how hard I hit you back.

Handing over all the Hostages was part of the deal urms . Israel turned the deal down.

The trouble that deciding how hard they hit back is that they are hitting, killing and maiming and orphaning children.

That isn’t dealing with Hamas that is beginning to look like genocide.

The opportunity is there to stop and negotiate, but it is not in Netanyahu’s interest to do so for obvious reasons. The USA is putting huge pressure on him, as surprisingly Trump will - he hates Netanyahu.

Both sides have to compromise because if not, many more innocent people will die, and the war will spread further afield.
I don’t think the US and UK should further support increasing carnage.

Urmstongran

Hamas created miles of tunnels, but didn't offer shelter from bombing. They had masses of aid, but stole it for their own nefarious purposes and withheld it from those it was meant to help, with, it seems, UNWRA turning a blind eye.

UNWRA is neutral - it is subject to a neutrality audit by the USA on a yearly basis.

Thank you for update Whitewave.
My Jewish friends in America are calling for an election. They absolutely abhor what Hamas did on 7/10 but they think it’s time for an election. However, although the husband is Israeli, I don’t know if he has a vote (bit like the thread on here and voting) but anyway I don’t think Netanyahu will go for an election. The wife of the couple is American and regularly posts terribly sad things about the hostages. I saw a report on on Al Jazeera ( not sure if that’s the right spelling) because it’s the only proper news channel we’ve got, and there was a very sad story on about a little girl in Hamas, trapped in a car with all her family dead.
Hamas have got a lot to answer for, but Netanyahu has got to negotiate at some point.
I don’t understand why the Egyptians haven’t opened the border and at least just created a refugee camp just inside their border. I can only imagine they don’t want to import any Hamas supporters.

I think Sisi doesn’t want to risk popular opinion or offending the Moslems in Egypt who don’t support Hamas. Plus they already take a huge number of other refugees. If he opened up the floodgates the different factions could and would clash and they would lay the blame on him. Doesn’t do anything to assist those poor innocent people left there,possibly to starve and die.

You are right nanna8 Egypt has various reasons for not taking more Palestinian refugees. Hamas would come with those refugees and potentially threaten the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt because Hamas would attack from Egypt then Israel would attack Egypt. A war Egypt doesn't want. It's unlikely Palestinian refugees would ever be allowed back to Palestine and Israel would just grab Gaza - playing straight into their hands. More unrest as the middle east support a Palestinian state. Egypt already supports millions of refugees from various countries and can't afford more or risk unrest/war.