Asia Pacific Report
Scenes of fully armed Hamas fighters in their green headbands escorting the three Israeli women hostages to their handover on the first day of the ceasefire and patrolling the streets of Gaza are embarrasing for the Israeli government, says an academic.
Mohamad Elmasry, a media studies professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says Israeli media are now focusing on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the 15-month war on Gaza which has killed almost 47,000 Palestinians,
“They’re calling this a spectacular failure,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview.
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“Back in April, Netanyahu said, ‘We are one step away from eliminating Hamas.’
“Then in June he doubled down on that and said, ‘We’re almost there. We almost eliminated Hamas.’
“And now he has to watch, on all the TV screens, Hamas fighters dressed in their fatigues escorting Israeli captives to their vehicles.
“He’s watching as Hamas will continue to govern Gaza and oversee the security situation, the humanitarian aid situation, and all elements of this ceasefire.
Hamas ‘has not been eliminated’
“Hamas has not been eliminated, and this is very embarrassing for Netanyahu.”
Three women hostages were exchanged for 90 Palestinian captives — mostly women and children, many of them detained by the Israeli military without charge — on the opening day of the ceasefire.
Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, said neither Hamas’s political nor military infrastructure had been entirely eradicated despite Netanyahu repeatedly citing it as the main goal of the war.
“Yes, Hamas was degraded, even decimated, militarily but they’re still standing up.
“So in that respect, short of occupying the entire Gaza Strip – which is something Israel never wanted to do – he did not attain that goal,” Pinkas told Al Jazeera.
“As for turning the Palestinians against Hamas, in order to do that he needs to offer them some sort of silver lining, some kind of alternative.
“Let’s not forget, it was Netanyahu’s deliberate, by-design policy to strengthen Hamas in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority and say ‘what do you know, I’ve got no one to talk to about a peace process.’”
99 rescuers killed
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Civil Defence agency has provided an update on the devastation in the besieged Strip, including the fact that Israeli attacks killed 99 and wounded 319 of its rescuers. Dozens suffered permanent injuries.
The Israeli military forces also detained 27 rescuers and their fate is unknown.
Civil defence crews recovered more than 97,000 injured Palestinians from bombed sites during the war.
About 2840 bodies were reported to have “evaporated without a trace” from Israeli weapons that unleashed temperatures between 7000-9000 degrees Celsius – “melting all at the centre of the explosion”.
Searching continues for an estimated more than 10,000 bodies buried under the rubble of bombed houses and buildings.
