GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 149

The Stage Is Being Set

All But Dead

Attempts to seal a new hostage deal are all but over as both sides are not willing to budge on key requests from the other as we read in an article from The Jerusalem Post:

Israel boycotted Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo on Sunday after Hamas rejected its demand for a complete list naming hostages that are still alive, according to reports.

A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for the talks, billed as a possible final hurdle before an agreement that would halt the fighting for six weeks and allow for the release of additional hostages out of the remaining 134 captives in Gaza.

Israel was a no show and here is why:

By the evening there was no sign of a delegation from Israel, which had said that it would only send officials to the talks if it received a list of the captives to be freed and a second list of security prisoners and terrorists held in its jails, which Hamas would want to see freed in exchange.

With Hamas not simply providing the information they surely can, the deal is off. The report cites a US official who mentions that there is more complexity to this round of negotiations. Anonymous Israelis official said this:

”There is no Israeli delegation in Cairo," according to Ynet, the online version of Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. It quoted unidentified Israeli officials as stating that "Hamas refuses to provide clear answers and therefore there is no reason to dispatch the Israeli delegation."

Although The United States seemed to say a deal was close, what they based this on is anyone’s guess:

Washington has insisted the ceasefire deal is close and should be in place in time to halt fighting by the start of Ramadan on March 10, a week away. But the warring sides have given little sign in public of backing away from previous demands.

Right now, it is closer to falling apart than coming together:

After the Hamas delegation arrived, a Palestinian official told Reuters the deal was "not yet there." There was no official comment from Israel.

In past negotiations, Hamas has sought to avoid discussing the well-being of individual hostages until after terms for their release are set.

A US official told reporters on Saturday: "The path to a ceasefire right now literally at this hour is straightforward. And there's a deal on the table. There's a framework deal."

Israel had agreed to the framework and it was now up to Hamas to respond, the US official said.

The Hold Up Could Be A Person

According to an article from i24news.tv the reason for the deal dying could actually be very simple and points to a single person:

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza and the architect of the October 7 massacre, is deliberately sabotage(ing) ceasefire talks, (and is) out to set the Middle East aflame during Ramadan, an unnamed senior Israeli official told Hebrew-language media Sunday.

"Sinwar would rather escalate tensions in the Middle East, causing bloodshed and chaos in Gaza during Ramadan, than take the alternative of a six-week ceasefire and humanitarian aid that would significantly alleviate the suffering of Gazan civilians," the official told the Ynet news site.

Which would mean that Hamas knows what Israel is asking for and their leader isn’t willing to do it:

Mossad Director David Barnea, heading the Israeli delegation to Qatar for negotiations on a potential hostage deal, was informed by the hosts that Hamas would not provide an updated list of living hostages, nor the criteria for the release of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons under a prisoner exchange deal.

Turning to another report, this time from an article in The Jerusalem Times other sources are verifying what we heard from i24news.tv:

Several Hebrew media outlets reported growing pessimism in Israel on Sunday that a hostage and truce deal can be reached before Ramadan. Unnamed officials cited by Channel 12, Ynet and others said Jerusalem suspects Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar has no intention of reaching an agreement in the coming days and hopes to escalate violence over Ramadan, which is expected to start March 10.

In such a scenario, Israel is wary of an escalation not just along its borders with Gaza and Lebanon, but also across the West Bank, where tensions are high, as well as in Jerusalem, where clashes over the Temple Mount and access to the holy site are widely expected.

Everyone is waiting on Hamas:

Two US officials quoted in the report said that Biden, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi “agreed the onus is currently on Hamas to close remaining gaps in the package.”

A Month Of Terror

We read in an article in The Jerusalem Post that peace isn’t on the terrorists list of actions during Ramadan:

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is calling for Ramadan to be a “month of terror” and seeks to escalate attacks in the West Bank and Gaza. In a recent speech, Abu Hamza, the spokesman for PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades, said he wants Arab countries in the region and pro-Iranian groups to continue to “unify” various arenas and fronts against Israel.

This is the latest indication that terrorist groups plan to seek an escalation in hostilities over the next month. Hamza’s remarks were published by Beirut-based Al Mayadeen news channel, which is pro-Iranian and frequently highlights Hamas and Hezbollah attacks.

There is unity, but not for peace:

The terminology used by PIJ ahead of Ramadan is part of the terminology Iran has used over the years to describe its strategy against Israel. This includes references to “unity of the battlefields,” which is a term for “unity of the arenas” or “unity of the fronts.”

These arenas include Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Iran has sought to surround Israel with threats that now exist along an arc of 5,000 miles, from Lebanon via Syria and Iraq to the Red Sea and then back to Gaza.

There are at least seven different “fronts,” according to Iran. Israeli officials have also mentioned these fronts. Iran wants to “unify” them. This means using the Hamas massacre on October 7 to increase attacks from Hezbollah and Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq.

A battle call is being issued:

PIJ is now calling on groups in Arab countries to not “lag in the battle led by the heroes of the resistance in the Gaza Strip, on behalf of the Islamic nation, especially those who possess armies, planes, and cannons.”

It’s not clear what countries Hamza thinks would now join and back Hamas. However, he is trying to shame the neighboring states.

“Isn’t it time for you to raise your guns like the free people in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq?” Hamza asked. “Isn’t it time for you to take off the garment of slavery and humiliation to America, the Great Satan, and follow the example of the honorable?”

The report then adds this ominous information:

his appears to indicate that Iran is plotting to escalate during Ramadan. The West wants a ceasefire during Ramadan, but it has historically been the month used by terrorists and extremists as an excuse to increase attacks.“We are certain that the single body of the nation will do the impossible and will make the month of Ramadan historic days to wash away shame and threaten the existence of the Israeli enemy entity and global arrogance,” Hamza said.

The Stage Is Being Set

I know others are giving us information about this and that, but from my perspective, the pieces are coming together for an all-out fight from all sides instigated it would seem by Sinwar himself. It really means that Hamas is preparing for one last attack and putting all they have left into such an offensive. And they would like nothing more than the IDF marching into Rafah to bring the surrounding proxies of Iran to join in the fray. This isn’t the product of my fertile mind, but rather based on comments made by Iran, Hezbollah and even the Houthi rebels in Yemen in the last few weeks. Hezbollah was given the green light from Iran to escalate their attacks from the north of Israel if the IDF begins an offensive into Rafah. Hamas is begging Hezbollah to help them out and has from the start of the war. And now the PIJ is wanting more Arab help, perhaps a veiled call for the puppet master Iran to actually get in the arena during Ramadan. If all of this is true, then March will be a very big time in this war, perhaps ending it with a huge bang. So what prayer strategies should we use knowing that peace is pretty much off the table no matter how much talk is bandied around from nations nowhere close to the heat of the fight. It is clear from IDF comments that if all sides want a fight, they are more than ready to give it to them using the 90% of “special capabilities” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant boasted of recently. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, but pray that the IDF and all of Israel is supernaturally protected as they engage for yet another fight for their existence once again.