Israel Admits It Violated The Ceasefire And Hamas Did Not

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

As we witness whatever’s going to happen with the highly jeopardized ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, I’d just like to make sure everyone’s aware that official Israeli sources have been telling the press that Israel was violating the ceasefire prior to the current standoff, and that Hamas was not.

Following the announcement by Hamas that it would be delaying the release of Israeli hostages until numerous Israeli ceasefire violations have been addressed, Israeli news outlet Maariv reported that according to the IDF itself, Hamas has not been guilty of any ceasefire violations up to this point.

Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah flagged on Twitter that according to Maariv, “the defense establishment and the IDF say that so far the terrorist organization has not violated the agreement, and therefore it is very doubtful whether Israel can take steps against Hamas at this stage.”

Contrast this acknowledgement with a report from The New York Times, which cites multiple anonymous sources to state way down toward the bottom of the article that Hamas’s claims about Israeli ceasefire violations are “accurate”.

Paragraphs 14 and 15 of the New York Times write-up read as follows:

“The current standoff stems in part from Hamas’s accusation that Israel has not upheld its promises for the first phase of the cease-fire. Israel was required to send hundreds of thousands of tents into Gaza, a promise that Hamas says Israel has not kept.

“Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, three Israeli officials and two mediators said that Hamas’s claims were accurate.”

So it’s been established beyond a doubt that Israel is to blame for the precarious state of the ceasefire today. That’s not coming from me, it’s coming from inside the Israeli government and military.

The ceasefire is deteriorating more rapidly by the day. After some flip-flopping on its position, the Netanyahu government has now clarified that it is demanding the release of “all” hostages held by Hamas by Saturday — a condition which is not part of the ceasefire agreement. This is a brand new condition which was first introduced not by Israel but by the president of the United States the previous day; Donald Trump told the press that Israel should terminate the ceasefire if “all” hostages are not released by Saturday at 12 PM.

Israel making new demands of Hamas which are not in the ceasefire deal as written is a reckless act which could easily lead to the resumption of fighting if Hamas decides it’s been pushed too far or can’t trust Israel to sufficiently hold up its end of the bargain.

And Trump helped bring things to this point. After Netanyahu visited Washington and stayed for nearly a week, the Israeli outlet Haaretz reported that the prime minister was planning to sabotage the ceasefire deal upon his return. Now here we are, watching the ceasefire being actively sabotaged by Netanyahu with a goal assist from Trump.

We can be reasonably certain that the western media will conveniently omit most of these important facts from its reporting in the coming days, so it’s important to hold all this in mind as we watch things unfold.

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