Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled Mossad Chief David Barnea and all Israeli negotiators from Qatar on Saturday, citing a "dead end" in talks; this signals a new round of hostilities is in the offing.

The original ceasefire that went into effect on November 24 collapsed Friday when Hamas reneged on a promise to release 10 Israeli women and offered to discuss the release of elderly men. According to Palestinian sources, the truce broke down over the refusal of Hamas to release female Israeli soldiers as part of the agreed-upon release of women. A local Hamas leader said there would be no more releases until Israel ended offensive operations.

Deputy leader of Hamas in Gaza: There will be no exchange of hostages and terrorists until the end of the war.

According to him, “Hamas released the kidnapped women and children in its possession.”

17 women and child hostages are unaccounted for. This includes 19 year old… pic.twitter.com/f28uQx9Y5p

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) December 2, 2023

The negotiations in Qatar were focused on the release of Israeli men taken hostage by Hamas after their ill-advised terrorist assault on Israel began on October 7.

My guess is that the refusal to release women soldiers is about this: the fact that men and women known to have been taken hostage are now known to have been killed in captivity

Women and men taken as hostages have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/7TnmdR5qqz

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) December 1, 2023

It was all a Hamas lie.

Hamas made a deal with Israel to return the Bibas boys and their mom as part of the hostage release ceasefire deal. The Bibas family wasn’t “killed by Israeli airstrikes.” They were alive when Israel agreed to a ceasefire!

Then Hamas started playing… pic.twitter.com/k8Dtfdu4In

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) December 2, 2023

And statements like this by senior Hamas leaders 

Hamas has demonstrated utter disregard for innocent lives and a total lack of humanity.

Don't take it from us, take it from a senior Hamas leader: pic.twitter.com/kwlgdk9irU

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 2, 2023

... have probably convinced Israeli leadership that they have all the hostages Hamas is willing to release, and the remainder are either dead or Hamas intends to try to drag out a ceasefire indefinitely via negotiations. 

Without the hope of a hostage release in exchange, there was no percentage in Israel giving Hamas more time to regroup, and a lot to be said for striking quickly to perhaps free any hostages that remain alive.

'All the way to the end': @netanyahu says IDF is prepared to eradicate Hamas once and for all pic.twitter.com/r8JduMGGUB

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) December 2, 2023