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Israel-Hamas truce: ‘everyone is tired of the same old, same old’, but what happens next?
- The truce will give parties a chance to build trust, but it will not last long given Israel’s determination to eradicate Hamas, analysts say
- Israel’s lack of progress in Gaza will become more costly the longer the war drags on and add pressure on it to make considerable concessions, they add
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A fragile four-day truce between Israel and Hamas that began this afternoon in Gaza to facilitate a hostages-for-prisoners exchange could be the “first tentative step” towards ending the conflict.
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But long-time observers believe more intense fighting between them is likely yet to come and neither side has a strategic plan for how it wants the war to end.
Instead, their next steps are being determined on a “wait and see” basis, as Israeli ground forces face the prospect of a bloody war of attrition with Hamas fighters entrenched in yet-to-be approached areas of Gaza City where the militant Palestinian group’s forces remain intact, hidden from sight in a maze of underground tunnels, analysts told This Week In Asia.
Meanwhile, Israel’s government appears determined to prosecute the next phase of its military campaign in the southern half of Gaza, where it believes the strip’s Hamas leadership has relocated to.
This threatens mass casualties among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have moved to southern Gaza since being ordered to do so on Sunday by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
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