DeGeer

Hamas continues to criminally & recklessly play roulette with the fate of 2.3 million Gazans by not accepting current ceasefire terms that even its chief backer, Qatar, is pressuring the group to take. It is well understood that a 6-week ceasefire will likely lead to a longer-term arrangement that sees all hostages released and prevents the resumption of hostilities. Sinwar & the Islamist psychopaths who lead Hamas want an Israeli invasion of Rafah during Ramadan because that's their final desperate hope that the West Bank & entire region would be further inflamed during the holy month. They think that mass civilian casualties would save them from a dishonorable defeat and are hoping to escape accountability by hiding behind tragic scenes of dead children and women who are going to be slaughtered; Hamas knows how deeply hated it is in Gaza and understands that when the war ends, there will be a reckoning and it will never again be able to fully control the coastal enclave like it once did. The group is not only holding Israeli hostages, but is effectively holding its own people captive to a rotten ideology, a failed political program, and a worthless regional alliance with Iran's "Axis of Resistance". The only ceasefire that Hamas wants is a fanciful one in which things go back to how they were on October 6th which begs the question: why do October 7th in the first place?