ISRAEL’S POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Negotiations have since stalled over how to proceed, with the two sides unable to agree on the next steps.
Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it achieves all of its war goals, including the return of all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the Oct 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war.
“Israel is talking about intensifying its military action, and it’s hard to see how anything else is likely to occur,” said Simon Frankel Pratt, senior political science lecturer at the University of Melbourne.
“It’s hard to see how parties can return to the bargaining table at this point,” he told CNA’s Asia Now on Tuesday.
Observers noted that Netanyahu never intended to honour stage two of the ceasefire.
“I think the Israelis wanted to try and have a slightly different ceasefire that would have more hostages released,” said Panikoff, who is director of think tank Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative.
“Obviously that was going to reduce Hamas’ single point of leverage, and so they were not going to agree to it. They wanted to move on to phase two of the original ceasefire agreement of having all Israeli troops out.”
Panikoff said this led to a “standstill”, which in turn led to the inevitable resumption of the war.
Analysts noted that Netanyahu is under a significant amount of domestic pressure to keep his political coalition together and maintain power.
Pratt said: “Maybe right now, Netanyahu has an interest in distracting his domestic adversaries with a return to the war.”
