12 Broken Ceasefires in 2014; Hadar Goldin's Body Still Held After 11 Years; Peace with Hamas Unlikely

Yesterday, Becca Lower offered a clear, well-reported account of the latest updates regarding Trump's peace plan. However, despite comments from Netanyahu and Trump, the facts surrounding Hamas' record make it clear that Israel and Hamas are most likely not on the verge of a lasting peace deal.

Today marks the 4,084th day that Hamas has been holding the remains of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin. Below are the background details on Hamas's abduction of Goldin in 2014 and the reasons why Hamas will not live up to Trump's peace deal.

Operation Protection Edge

On June 12, 2014, Hamas terrorists Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme kidnapped the teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel, and Gil-ad Shaar near the Israeli town of Geva'ot in the West Bank. Yifrach was nineteen years old, and Fraenkel and Shaar were both sixteen. Back in 2014, Geva'ot was a small town with only ten families. Geva'ot is about ten miles southwest of Jerusalem.

In response to the kidnapping, the IDF launched Operation Brother's Keeper to find the three abducted Israelis. The IDF operation resulted in the arrest of about 600 Hamas terrorists from the West Bank. Shortly after the start of Operation Brother's Keeper, Hamas started launching rockets from Gaza into Israel on a daily basis. On June 30, Israeli authorities discovered the bodies of the three teenagers in a field near the West Bank Arab town of Halhul. Between June 12 and July 8, the IDF estimated that Hamas had launched 250 rockets into Israel.

On July 8, 2014, Netanyahu had had enough, and the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge, otherwise known as the 2014 Gaza War. (Yes, Netanyahu was prime minister in 2014.) From July 8 through July 18, the IDF commenced an aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas infrastructure, rocket launchers, and tunnels. Hamas attempted to infiltrate Israel via tunnels that went under the Gaza fence and via the Mediterranean by Hamas naval commandos. The IDF foiled these attempts. During the aerial bombardment, Hamas agreed to and then failed to keep three separate ceasefire agreements.

On July 18, the IDF invaded the Gaza Strip with infantry and armored divisions to find and destroy Hamas tunnels. Within the first 48 hours, the IDF uncovered and destroyed 30 tunnels, ten of which ran under the Gaza fence into Israel. The IDF discovered Hamas weapons stored in a UNRWA school, and Hamas terrorists were seen firing on Israeli troops from hospitals.

On August 1, Hamas agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire with Israel. Ninety minutes after the start of the ceasefire, Hamas terrorists emerged from a tunnel on the Israeli side of the border and ambushed IDF soldiers. During the ambush, Hamas terrorists killed three IDF infantry soldiers of the Givati Brigade. One of those soldiers was twenty-three-year-old Hadar Goldin. The Hamas terrorists dragged Goldin's body into the tunnels and have kept his remains in Gaza to the present day. Despite repeated attempts by the Israeli government to negotiate the return of Goldin's body, Hamas refuses to do so.

The broken ceasefire of August 1 was one of nine ceasefires that Hamas agreed to and then broke during the ground phase of the war. In total, Hamas agreed to and broke twelve different ceasefire agreements during Operation Protective Edge. After the war was over, on September 23, Shin Bet, Israel's national police, found both Hamas terrorists who had abducted the three teenagers. The terrorists resisted arrest, and after a brief gunfight, they were killed by Shin Bet. For those interested in reading a highly detailed account of Operation Protective Edge, click here.

One of the few positives to come out of Operation Protective Edge was Israel's ingenuity in dealing with Hamas tunnels under the Israel-Gaza border. Israel designed and built a highly classified underground barrier around the entire Israel-Gaza border. The barrier alerts the IDF that a tunnel is being dug long before it reaches the underground barrier and gives the IDF time to destroy it. Construction on the underground barrier began in 2017 and was completed in 2021. Since the underground barrier's completion, Hamas has not been able to dig a tunnel into Israel from Gaza.

Current Negotiations

Israel sent the following officials to Egypt to begin talks on Monday:

Ron Dermer, Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs;
Gal Hirsch, retired IDF Brigadier General and government-appointed Coordinator for Negotiations for the Captives and Missing;
Ophir Falk, Foreign Policy Adviser;
An unnamed senior Shin Bet official;
An unnamed senior Mossad official;
Additional staff from Shin Bet, Mossad, and the IDF.

The talks in Egypt are supposed to focus on the release of all of the Israeli hostages within the 72-hour timeframe. According to Ynetnews, Az al-Din Haddad, head of Hamas' military wing, insists the 72-hour timeframe is impossible and that all twenty provisions of the plan must be negotiated simultaneously. Haddad claims Hamas has lost contact with some of the terrorists holding the hostages and needs time to locate them.

Haddad refuses to have Hamas surrender its weapons. According to sources, Haddad says he might be willing to store "offensive weapons" in Egypt or under UN supervision, but Hamas refuses to give up its small arms. If Hamas were allowed to "store" its rockets and other "offensive" weapons in Egypt, it would just be a matter of time before Hamas builds new tunnels and smuggles them back into Gaza. Furthermore, UNRWA is essentially a subordinate of Hamas, so letting UNRWA take custody of the weapons would mean Hamas would maintain its access to them.

Haddad rejects any foreign or Arab-international administration and refuses to accept any IDF presence in Gaza. Haddad has hesitantly agreed to allow the transfer of civilian governance to a nonpartisan Palestinian technocratic body supported by Arab states. However, Haddad insists that Hamas will retain its political influence in Gaza.

To anyone familiar with Hamas' history, there is a greater chance of winning the lottery without purchasing a ticket than of Hamas both releasing all the hostages and abiding by all the terms of the peace deal.

The Hamas terrorist organization is an expert at delay tactics. Since Trump forced Israel to unilaterally halt its offensive operations in Gaza, Hamas will use the talks to delay as long as possible to allow it to regroup and rebuild its tunnels and defenses.

Hamas agreed to release all of the hostages as a delay tactic and to flatter Trump's ego. At best, Hamas will release most of the hostages, but there will be some hostages that Hamas claims it cannot locate. What remains to be seen is how much Trump really wants a Nobel Peace Prize and how long he will allow Hamas to stall the talks. The other question is how much patience Netanyahu has before he orders the IDF to finish the job.

It is likely that Trump realizes Hamas will never follow the terms of the peace deal. It is even more probable that Trump has persuaded Netanyahu that the peace plan offers the greatest chance of recovering some of the hostages. Trump likely thinks that when Hamas fails to abide by the terms of the peace deal, the entire world will have Israel's back in its effort to finish off Hamas.

However, if Trump does believe that, then he is wrong. When it becomes obvious that Hamas is not going to agree to the peace deal and the IDF resumes the war, Hamas will scream from the rooftops, "We agreed to release all the hostages and Israel failed to live up to the deal," and then like always, the international media will spread this lie far and wide and countries like Canada, Australia, France and the UK will call for the recognition of a Palestinian state all over again.

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