A week after the release of the 20 remaining living hostages from Hamas captivity, their emotional return home, and the lightning visit of US President Donald Trump to the region to usher in his 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, it appears to be unraveling.
Palestinian terror operatives launched an attack on Israeli forces in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning. The military said the attack, which involved rocket-propelled grenade fire and sniper shots by the terrorists against the IDF and which resulted in the deaths of Maj. Yaniv Kula and St.-Sgt. Itay Yavetz, was “a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
The IDF responded forcefully, carrying out airstrikes and firing artillery shells at Rafah to “remove threats,” during which several tunnels and buildings where terror operatives were spotted were destroyed.
At the same time, Hamas representatives are saying that the terror group has no plans to disarm or cede its power in Gaza.
Israel’s just insistence that no further stages of the plan be implemented until the remainder of the bodies held by Hamas are returned is inadvertently enabling Hamas to entrench itself in the areas in Gaza from which the IDF has already withdrawn which will make the next phase of Trump’s ambitious plan much harder to implement.
Trump made light of the ceasefire violations by Hamas, telling reporters that “rogue elements, not Hamas leadership,” were responsible for the latest attack on Israel. We’ll handle it tough but fair. The ceasefire will hold.”
Getting the ceasefire back on track and ensuring it advances to the next stages are the formidable tasks facing Trump’s negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were back in Israel yesterday as advance men for today’s scheduled visit by US Vice President JD Vance.
Witkoff and Kushner did so much to achieve the deal that brought the hostages home, and Israel can’t be grateful enough for their efforts. However, their statements on the 60 Minutes interview that aired on Sunday revealed for anyone who thought otherwise that US and Israeli interests in the region have some daylight.
Besides saying that the Trump team felt “betrayed” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the unsuccessful Doha assassination attempt of the Hamas leadership and lumping Israel’s concerns with Hamas’s demands as “50 years of stupid word games that everyone in that region is so used to playing,” Kushner and Witkoff hinted that pressure on Israel is forthcoming given the Palestinian West Bank issue.
Kushner and Witkoff 'just getting started'
“The biggest message that we’ve tried to convey to the Israeli leadership now is that now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better,” Kushner said, adding that he and Witkoff were “just getting started” with relaying this message to Israel.
It’s unlikely that this objective is on Netanyahu’s coalition agenda, not one in which not only far Right partners Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are breathing down his neck.
MK Amit Halevi, from Netanyahu’s Likud party, launched a scathing attack against the deal brokered by Trump and his negotiators, accusing them of endangering Israel’s security.
“These people are leading us to the gates of hell,” Halevi said in an interview with Army Radio, emphasizing that Gaza must ultimately come under Israeli control. “Sooner or later, Israel will control Gaza; there is no other way,” he said.
The difference in thinking between the US and Israel on the ceasefire is that the US sees its partners in Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar as having the ability to rein in Hamas and its nature of terrorism.
Israel, however, is rightfully skeptical and, due to the zero tolerance policy in place since October 7, is not prepared to ignore any infractions, whether it be the non-return of the hostages’ bodies or an aggressive and deadly attack the likes of which we saw on Sunday.
Whether the US – with Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner in person and Trump pulling the strings from Washington – and Israel will be able to bridge their divergent philosophies and strategies and bond over the shared goal of seeing a peaceful, rebuilt Gaza with a disarmed, ineffective Hamas will only become apparent in the coming weeks.
What is apparent, however, is that Israel may have to make some hard decisions that could very well antagonize its US partners. Then we’ll see how strong the bond really is.