Gershon Baskin, who mediated the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas in which kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit was released, says, in citing a senior IDF officer, that Hamas is neither ready for a ceasefire, nor is it aiming for one.
Saying the reports that Hamas has “had enough” are “bullshit,” Baskin says Hamas will not agree to a ceasefire unless Israel meets its demands, which Israel rejected after Baskin relayed them.
“The Israeli officials responded that Hamas had (chutzpa) gall to even make demands and they laughed them off. Hamas’s demands have not changed since then,” writes Baskin on his Facebook page.
Now, he says, Hamas is seeking a “qualitative” achievement “such as blowing up tanks, killing soldiers and/or kidnapping a soldier” in lieu of a ceasefire. If Israel doesn’t agree to its terms, Hamas will simply wait for it to “give up.”
Baskin says the heavy Israeli shelling of Gaza, which the IDF officer claims is making Hamas “run for a ceasefire,” has had the very opposite effect.
“You cannot create deterrence when people are not really afraid to die. Hamas is not running for a ceasefire and is quite prepared to continue the operation until Israel gives up,” he says.
Gershon Baskin (photo credit: Elhanan Miller/Times of Israel)
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