Israel, Hamas must establish ceasefire

Israel’s Rafah offensive jeopardises chance for both sides to end war

Israel and Hamas have an opportunity to end the war in Gaza, but there is yet a strong probability that the chance could slip out of their grasp. Israel's offensive in Rafah, which has placed it in control of the border with Egypt, was ill-timed. The Rafah operation came amid signs that Hamas had accepted the terms of a truce that centres on the release of hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. It is of no comfort that Tel Aviv has apparently assured the Biden administration, which had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against an assault on Rafah, that it would be a “limited operation”. No one – not even Israel’s closest ally, the US – is prepared to believe that Israel can restrain itself. Not after Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 attack on it has resulted in the relentless battering of Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, most of them children and women, and more than two million people displaced because their homes have been destroyed. 

Israel has now blocked Rafah, the only route available to deliver humanitarian relief to those who have fled Gaza south to what they believed was a safe area to escape the bombardment. Thousands have had to flee their dwellings in Rafah, too, after Israel issued evacuation orders. Mediators are still frantically trying to work out the terms of the ceasefire and narrow the remaining gaps between the two sides, but Israel's actions are jeopardising the talks. 

While the US and other western powers backing Israel are losing their patience, and the International Court of Justice outrightly called Israeli operations in Gaza as ticking off all the boxes of a genocide, Israel is in no mood to pull back. In what is an election year in many of these countries, the publics are in ferment over the backing their governments have given to Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu. US Ivy League campuses have erupted with calls for a ceasefire and protests reminiscent of the anti-Vietnam War protests. Efforts by university administrations to rein in the protests by calling them “anti-Semitic” have not silenced those who see Israel as having crossed every definition of self-defence, or of even fighting a war against combatants. When the Biden administration warns Israel not to invade and block the only route to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, even college students can see the ghastly contradiction between the US bankrolling Israel's war, on the one hand, and sending aid to its victims. It is quite clear that keeping the war going is Netanyahu's preferred way to ensuring his own survival in office. International leaders must make it clear that he cannot continue to do so. Both Israel and Hamas must take all steps necessary to establish a ceasefire immediately.