Hamas Is Lying

In what should not come as a shock for those of us who have been paying attention to the war in Israel, Hamas is hoping to drag out the Trump ceasefire a very long time essentially denying they ever accepted the full deal as we read in a report from World Israel News:

Did Hamas lie to US President Donald J. Trump when it said that it had accepted his 20-point plan for ending its war against Israel in the Gaza Strip? Or is the terror group simply trying to buy time to reassert control over the Gaza Strip and prepare for more terror attacks against Israel? Yes and yes. Hamas lied.

As I have been saying over and over again, Hamas will say anything to survive to attack again:

Hamas is trying to gain time by arguing that it needs to engage in negotiations and discussions about the implementation of most parts of the Trump plan. Since the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip went into effect in early October, Hamas officials have repeatedly emphasized that they did not accept all the points mentioned in the Trump plan. According to these officials, Hamas only agreed to the first phase of the Trump plan, which calls for Israel to suspend military operations and release Palestinian prisoners, and for Hamas to return all Israeli hostages, dead and alive, within 72 hours. It has been weeks, and Hamas has not yet fulfilled that phase-one obligation. 

Here we are more than three days later and we’re still waiting on the last three remains to be returned. The second phase with Hamas disarming may never start. Mentions about a transitional force to take over Gaza while its being rebuilt is a distant thought if the current pace of Hamas compliance continues. According to the terrorists, they never agreed to all the 20 points:

Hamas insists that these issues are “up for negotiation” but that it never agreed to demilitarization or the presence of international experts and security forces in the Gaza Strip. Hamas official Osama Hamdan affirmed on November 10 that his group did not accept all the 20 points of Trump’s plan. In a podcast interview, Hamdan, who lives outside the Gaza Strip, said that Hamas had accepted only the first phase of Trump’s plan.

To be fair they did release all the living hostages and are close to returning the bodies of those killed in captivity, but that was supposed to have happened in the first 72 hours of the deal:

Hamas has since released all 20 living hostages and the remains of most of the hostages they killed. By November 12, the terror group had not yet returned the remains of four hostages, although Israel suspended its military activities and released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Reminder: all the hostages, dead and alive, were supposed to be returned within 72 hours of the announcement of the Trump plan in late September.

More Stalling For Time

Instead of a done deal, Hamas is acting like the whole thing isn’t settled at all:

What Hamdan and other Hamas officials are saying is: “After we return the remains of the four Israelis, then we can start negotiations and discussions about the implementation of the rest of Trump’s plan.” Notably, the Trump plan was announced after intensive negotiations between Hamas and Arab and Islamic mediators, as well as direct and indirect meetings with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The full details of the plan were presented to Hamas, whose leaders finally signed on to it. Hamas cannot say that its leaders were not aware of the second and third phases of the plan, especially regarding the international “Board of Peace,” demilitarization, and the deployment of international security forces in the Gaza Strip.

Predictably Hamas is dragging out the return of the remaining three bodies so they can continue to solidify their hold on the parts of Gaza they have now:

Hamas’s main strategy is evidently to buy time so that it can reassert control over the Gaza Strip and rebuild its military and organizational infrastructure. By stating that it needs to launch “negotiations and discussions” about the implementation of the rest of Trump’s plan, Hamas is clearly seeking to win as much time as ever to enable it to maintain a grip on the Gaza Strip. As far as Hamas is concerned, the longer the negotiations continue, the better. Those who are familiar with Hamas’s way of handling things know that such negotiations, if and when they start, could last for months or years.

Did you get that? Months or years? Unless the US wakes up, Hamas will continue to slow things down until the current US administration is gone:

Hamas will likely try to drag out negotiations over the administration of the Gaza Strip, disarmament and international forces for another three years, until the Trump administration is replaced by another administration that Hamas hopes will be less interested in the Gaza Strip.

If you want proof of that just listen to what Hamdan is saying about the current deal:

Hamdan said during the interview that when the Hamas representatives went to Egypt to sign the Trump plan for peace in the Gaza Strip, they had only these things in mind: a ceasefire, exchanging their hostages for Palestinian prisoners, reopening the Gaza Strip’s borders with Israel and Egypt, and the entry of unrestricted humanitarian aid.

“What we signed was related to the first phase of the plan, the remaining phases are up for negotiations and discussions,” he claimed. Hamdan alleged that the US administration was aware that Hamas had not accepted all the 20 points of the Trump plan. “The Americans agreed to this,” he said. “Our response was very clear.”

No Plans To Leave

Hamas doesn’t want to get out of dodge and want to govern there during the rebuilding process:

Hamdan repeated Hamas’s rejection of the involvement of an international body or similar figures in the governance of the Gaza Strip:

“There is a Palestinian national consensus on rejecting any non-Palestinian administration. If there’s an international committee that wants to supervise the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, that’s another story. We agreed on this with all the other Palestinian factions.”

The lying continues on the issue of who takes over Gaza:

The Hamas official dismissed outright the deployment of international forces in the Gaza Strip:

“We reject international forces that come to replace Israel. These forces should only be stationed at the borders to ensure the implementation of the Trump plan and to protect the Palestinians against Israeli aggression. These forces should have no role inside the Gaza Strip. We are capable of managing our own affairs and we don’t need guardianship. The negotiations over this still haven’t started.”

And about disarming, well good luck on that Hamdan says:

Hamdan also repeated Hamas’s refusal to lay down its weapons in accordance with the Trump plan. The weapons of the Palestinian terror groups, he emphasized, will be handed only to the government of a future Palestinian state after its establishment:

“The Palestinian factions that recently met in Cairo made a clear statement on this issue, that this is a national issue and that the resistance is tied to our right to establish a Palestinian state after the liberation. When there’s a Palestinian state capable of protecting its people, it’s natural that the weapons would be handed over to that state. Until then, resistance is a right that we cannot give up. This issue has not been discussed until now with the mediators or with the Americans.”

The US officials tell us a different story:

This statement by the Hamas official contradicts what Witkoff recently said:

“Hamas has always indicated they would disarm. They’ve said so – they said it to us directly during that famous meeting that Jared [Kushner] had with them.”

Knowing Arabic might be a good thing as negotiations continue:

It is crucial to pay attention to what Hamas leaders are telling their people in Arabic. The statements of the Hamas official show that the terror group is not serious about laying down its weapons or relinquishing control over the Gaza Strip. For Hamas, the Trump plan is nothing but a temporary ceasefire that would enable it to wait out the Trump administration, get back on its feet to rule Gaza again, and resume its Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.

Have I mentioned this before? You betcha. Is anyone listening? Unless these US officials indicate the contrary, I doubt it. They may know who they’re dealing with and are factoring other deals and goals like the Abraham Accords or agreements with Arab and Muslim nations that allowed the hostages to be released. I really don’t know, but what I do know is that Hamas and really all of these terrorists need to be defeated by force. The Bible predicts this happening and I tend to agree with that outcome. And so should you.