Israeli media comments on the ceasefire agreement in Gaza

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Israeli media commented on the ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange in the Gaza Strip, saying that Hamas’s primary goal in the deal focuses on surviving and maintaining control and not giving Israel a foothold in the Gaza Strip, and it succeeded in that, while Israel failed.

Arab affairs analyst Zvi Yehezkeli stated on the Israeli i24NEWS website that the difficulty of the deal isn’t in releasing the prisoners, but in how to move forward the day after it, as “Hamas is moving forward in managing the Gaza Strip,” which means that “Israel hasn’t achieved the goals of the war, and has not changed the reality in the region”.

“Hamas wants one thing, and it is consistent in its goals… It wants to control the Gaza Strip,” Yehezkeli said.

“The deal that was agreed upon isn’t the ideal deal for Israel, but rather one of the worst deals it has ever made in its history,” said Micha Kobi, a former official in the Israeli General Security Service (Shabak).

Kobi explained that despite this, “Israel has no other choice,” stressing that it “failed to protect the Israelis from captivity, and now it is forced to pay the heavy price for this failure and return them”.

According to him, one of the difficult points in the deal is the ambiguity regarding the fate of the prisoners, as “we still don’t know who among them is alive and who among them will be returned as corpses, as Hamas is playing with the nerves of the Israelis and prolonging their tension, anxiety and anticipation, by refusing to provide clear information in this regard”.

Regarding the impact of the agreement on Hamas, Kobi said that what happened “is a huge success in the eyes of Hamas, which sees itself as victorious because it was able to recruit more people under the violent attack, and stuck to its demands from Israel and did not give them up, and it prolonged the negotiation process as it had planned from the beginning, and was able to dictate its terms to Israel, after they had exhausted and drained it”.

In this context, Kobi confirmed that the central figure in this deal is Mohammed Sinwar, saying that he is “the figure who makes decisions in the Gaza Strip, and he is the one who determines who will be released from among the Israeli prisoners”.

He added that Sinwar is betting on the time factor and is trying to keep the largest possible number of prisoners for the longest possible period, so that he can achieve the maximum profit, with the passage of more time.

According to Kobi, “Hamas is working to achieve two main goals: survival and returning to managing the affairs of the Strip,” adding, “from its point of view, it has succeeded in both matters – at least so far – despite the harsh war”.

But he believed that Israel shouldn’t agree to this, as Hamas shouldn’t remain the sovereign in Gaza, and Israel shouldn’t under any circumstances withdraw from strategic areas such as the Philadelphi Corridor.

Regarding what he described as the hidden danger within the prisoner exchange deal, military affairs analyst Yossi Yehoshua told the i24NEWS website that “Israel no longer has additional means of pressure to implement an exchange deal if Hamas cancels the deal,” noting that the only way to pressure it “will be through fighting in more difficult conditions in the Gaza Strip”.

Yehoshua pointed out the need to pay attention to the security situation in the West Bank, which “will be particularly explosive at this time”.

After more than a year, efforts to cease fire and exchange prisoners in the Gaza Strip succeeded, as part of an agreement agreed upon by Hamas and Israel, which will go into effect next Sunday, on the 19th of this month.

The Israeli army is preparing for a gradual withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, while the Rafah crossing will also be opened under Egyptian control.

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