With an attack on a busy bus station in Jerusalem, Hamas fighters threatened the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning. A 73-year-old rabbi, a 60-year-old woman and a 24-year-old woman were shot dead by two men who jumped out of a car. Four others were injured.
Hamas later confirmed that the Palestinian perpetrators, who were also shot dead, were members of the movement. According to Israeli media, both had previously been in prison for terrorist activities. The armed branch of Hamas later announced that the men had acted on their orders in response to “the crimes of the occupier, the killing of women and children in Gaza.”
At the last minute
Only recently, the temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which has been in force since last Friday, had been extended again at the last minute, this time for only one day. Hamas would again release eight hostages as well as the bodies of three deceased hostages, a mother and two young children who, according to Hamas, had been killed in an Israeli bombardment. Two women were released early in the evening. In turn, Israel would release another thirty Palestinian prisoners.
It was still uncertain whether the file could be extended again. According to mediators Qatar and Egypt, negotiations were still ongoing on Thursday despite the attack.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also urged Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government to extend the ceasefire once again. Blinken, who is traveling through the Middle East for the third time since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, also held talks with Netanyahu and other leading Israeli politicians on Thursday.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said – despite American pressure – that his government wants to resume the ground offensive against Hamas as long as Hamas remains present in the Gaza Strip. But the Prime Minister did not rule out new extensions of the truce.
Citizen safety
Blinken urged Israelis to “do everything possible” to ensure the safety of civilians in the Gaza Strip before starting a new round of fighting with Hamas. He also urged “immediate steps” to counter violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. The Israeli army is also taking tough action against the Palestinians. Two children were shot dead during an operation in the often restive city of Jenin on Wednesday.
Analysts fear that there could be many more deaths in a renewed fighting in the southern half of the Gaza Strip because Hamas fighters are among many more civilians there than in northern Gaza, which is now in the hands of the Israeli army. About 14,800 people have been killed in the fighting so far, which has mainly taken place in the northern part since October 7.
However, within Netanyahu’s cabinet there are also ministers who are not in favor of an extension of the truce. They believe that Israel should stop making concessions to Hamas and resume its offensive against the movement in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible. “This event (the attack, ed.) shows once again that we should not show weakness, that we should only speak to Hamas through the barrel of a gun, only through war,” said Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister of National Security. His colleague Bezalel Smotrich (Finance) has also previously expressed himself in this vein.