Gaza: Why Hamas Rejected the Cease-fire

The day started with an air of optimism, and there was a sense, at last, that this war was over. Maybe the problems had not been solved, but at least the missiles would end and we would not have lost any people.  

I was out early with my son for breakfast, and, for a few minutes, we did not worry that the sirens would go off. At 9, the Israeli government officially accepted Egypt’s cease-fire call. Yet a few minutes later missiles were flying, beginning with the areas immediately around Gaza. A few minutes later, a major barrage of missiles were aimed at Ashdod. One missile fell on a house, but thankfully the residents were in their reinforced room and were not hurt.

Then, a few minutes later, sirens went off in the center of the country, and a missile was intercepted over Rishon Lezion. If we had any hope of a potential cease-fire, it quickly evaporated as soon as sirens began to sound in the north, when Hamas launched missiles toward Haifa.

What happened? Beginning last night, almost all of the experts had said there was going to be a cease-fire. Overnight, hardly any missiles had fallen. What changed?

First, we had all assumed that Hamas was not going to say no to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi once again. Second, we assumed that Hamas was ready for a cease-fire.

What we did not understand was that first, Hamas at this point does not care what al-Sisi thinks. We also did not understand that Hamas was not willing to end the war without achieving anything. The Egyptian plan did not provide Hamas with any gains at all after a week of fighting and not killing any Israelis. Finally, Hamas has concluded that Israel is weak and not willing to launch a ground assault.

Under these conditions, Hamas made the conscious decision to reject the cease-fire and resume the missile attacks.

It is now clear that we are not going to have a cease-fire any time soon. Hamas has only one of two goals: either kill us or make sure that we kill so many of their own people that the world will turn against us. I am not sure they are leaving us too many choices.

When I began writing this update, we, in Tel Aviv, had not been attacked yet. Moments after I finished writing, as the piece was being edited, the sirens went off. Three more missiles were headed toward Tel-Aviv, and all were downed by the Iron Dome. At the same time, 20-plus missiles were fired at other parts of Israel. It looks as if it’s just another day of living under occasional missile fire.

Political historian Marc Schulman is the editor of historycentral.com. An archive of his recent daily reports from Tel-Aviv can be found here. He is also a columnist for the Times of Israel.