John Kerry has proposed a seven-day truce, during which time there would be negotiations over a longer-term ceasefire.
Hamas reportedly is going to accept the proposal, but that’s far from official.
The Israeli cabinet is discussing the proposal as we speak. Concerns are that Hamas, having rejected a ceasefire early on and finally beginning to crumble, will simply use the truce to redeploy and recover.
We will update when more is known, but you can follow the events in the live video and Twitter feeds at the bottom of the post.
A ceasefire that allows Hamas to rearm and reload likely will be unacceptable to Israel in light of the discovery that Hamas had planned a massive Rosh Hashonah attack through the tunnels that are being destroyed:
Israel’s Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday that Hamas was intending to attack Israel from dozens of tunnels in a coordinated simultaneous attack. At the beginning of Thursday’s special cabinet meeting the prime minister said, “These tunnels enable the enemy to open a multi-pronged offensive and carry out a massive terror attack inside Israel.”According to security officials cited by Israeli daily Ma’ariv, the political echelon needs to give the military more time to eliminate the tunnels since “we are now not even halfway through.” The attack Hamas was planning, the officials say, “would have made Israel drop to its knees.” They added that even the tunnels destroyed until now takes away from Hamas a strategic asset the terror group has been working on for years..
IDF officers estimate that the job of destroying all the tunnel infrastructure will take another ten days to two weeks to complete:
And it’s neither a simple mission, nor a short one. If anyone in the political echelon wants to reach a ceasefire under any condition, they should go ahead and do that. It’s legitimate. But let us make no mistake: The tunnel threat cannot be removed any time soon.This view is shared by senior IDF officers. The army opposes a ceasefire without accomplishing the basic mission it has been tasked with: Thwarting the threat of Gaza’s offensive tunnels.And just like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon will find it difficult to look the Gaza vicinity residents in the eyes if the threat is not removed, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz will find it difficult to look into the eyes of the commanders and bereaved families of soldiers sent on an unaccomplished mission.
The Israel soldier Hamas claimed to have “captured” has officially been declared dead by Israel:
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