Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
06 May 2024 | 17:20 SAST
2-minute read

Israel has rejected Hamas’ key demands in the latest round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations, including an end to Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and a complete withdrawal of occupation forces from the besieged enclave.

The Hamas delegation that took part in the discussions are set to return to Cairo on Tuesday in a determined effort to reach an agreement.

Moulana Ebrahim Moosa reported on Radio Islam International that CIA Director William Burns represented Israel at the peace negotiations. Burns is reported to have left Cairo to attend an emergency meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister to implore him to exert pressure on both sides to reach an agreement. This move is a bid to achieve, through other means, Israel’s failed military goals on the ground in Gaza.

“The Israelis have achieved utter failure on the ground in Gaza except for causing major destruction and the genocide, and, therefore, as we’ve mentioned before, they are trying to use these negotiations to impose a new reality. And when they have failed through these negotiations to achieve the breakthroughs that they’ve tried to achieve, the new approach from the Israelis and the Americans is to try and pressure Qatar and pressure the Egyptians to then achieve what they’re not achieving militarily or through the negotiations,” Moulana Moosa said.

Pressure on the Qatar government to close the Hamas office in the city is an attempt to persuade both the “Qataris and Hamas to capitulate to the American demand”, Moulana Moosa explained.  In addition, Israel’s decision to halt Al Jazeera operations in Palestine is further evidence of its exertion of power to influence the situation.

Hamas’ firm resolve to halt Israel’s military action in Gaza has put a spanner in American and Israeli plans, including the construction of a pier and the maintenance of the “Netzarim” axis, the corridor that is dividing the enclave.

The Palestinian resistance forces have reported numerous attacks on Israeli occupation forces on the corridor.

“Attacks [have increased] on this axis, on this corridor, the “Netzarim” axis that’s separating Gaza in half. The resistance has upped the attacks on Israeli troops [there],” Moulana Moosa said.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces have launched an attack on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah after issuing an urgent evacuation order.

First-hand accounts from eight Israeli enemy soldiers returning from Gaza indicate fierce, intense resistance from Gazan soldiers.

“Some of these accounts talk about Israeli soldiers suffocating in tanks, how soldiers, perhaps in the earlier stage of the war, had to shut their hatches on tanks to avoid being attacked by snipers, experiencing blasts within tanks, how crew members were burned, and some soldiers in this piece talk about suffering a number of mass casualty incidents. They speak about how they had to encounter the Palestinian resistance, and they say there’s no visible enemy. It’s like you’re fighting against demons. People who were in the clashes, Israeli soldiers who were in the clashes said, that a building shot at me, the ruin shelled me. We didn’t see anybody. So, you know, that spectre of fighting an unknown enemy,” Moulana Moosa said.

Israeli soldiers also reported about the lasting negative psychological effects of the continuous bombardment and shooting in the strip. Published by Haaretz and titled Monologues of eight Israeli soldiers who returned from the Gaza battlefield, the report includes harrowing evidence of troops storming civilian homes, with soldiers describing their entry into children’s rooms as difficult at first, but easier with time.

Listen to the Palestine Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.