'The United States and Israel want Hamas to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip'

  • 2 months ago

Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com

Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Transcript
00:00Well, I think there's a lot of questions about the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
00:06is leading the ceasefire negotiations.
00:11But I think there is some kind of misconception, even a little bit of revisionist history when
00:17people are looking at the life of Ismail Haniyeh.
00:21They're calling him a moderate.
00:23They're saying he was, you know, the lead negotiator.
00:25How could Israel have killed him?
00:28Let's remember that Ismail Haniyeh has utterly failed in the last six months to work towards
00:37an agreement that would enable women and children to come out of the Gaza Strip.
00:44There's no reason that Hamas should be holding, I mean, they shouldn't be holding any hostages,
00:50but civilians and women and girls the age of 18 or 20.
00:55You know, he couldn't get Sinwar, Yachtez Sinwar, the military leader of Hamas, to show
01:00any flexibility.
01:01For that matter, the United States and Israel want Hamas to essentially relinquish control
01:07of the Gaza Strip after their attack on October 7th and let somebody else run the Gaza Strip.
01:14And we saw that Ismail Haniyeh was against that position and never relented.
01:20So it's clear that Israel, looking at his ineffective leadership of the ceasefire talks
01:26against all of his long record of terrorism, decided they, apparently they had an opportunity
01:35and they were going to take out Ismail Haniyeh.
01:38Of course, Israel has not claimed that strike officially, but it has all the hallmarks of
01:44an Israeli hit.
01:45And now it has changed the dynamic within Hamas.
01:49And remember, this is in line with what Israeli leaders had vowed to do after October 7th.
01:55They said every leader in Hamas is now a dead man, dead man walking.
01:59It was only going to be a matter of time until Israel reached them.
02:05And it appears they reached him in Tehran.
02:08Assuming once again that Israel was responsible for Jordana, it is rather a coup, isn't it,
02:13for the Israeli intelligence services after, of course, those failures of October the 7th.
02:18I mean, absolutely.
02:20We have to, you know, we have to give, you know, Israel certainly showed its intelligence
02:27prowess, its capabilities prowess.
02:31There's no question about it.
02:32And many people do believe it has restored some level of deterrence that was utterly
02:37destroyed on October 7th.
02:40Sending the message to Hamas and, by the way, to Hezbollah, since Israel did claim that
02:47targeted killing of a top Hezbollah leader just hours before.
02:52But, of course, the biggest message Israel is sending is really to Iran.
02:56Israel blames Iran for funding and helping to arm all of these groups.
03:03They are really the bad actor.
03:07So this is a message to Iran as well, that Israel can reach anybody that it sees on its
03:16wanted list and that it has capabilities that can take out a visiting guest of the Iranian
03:24regime. I mean, it's a terrible embarrassment for the Iranians, which is why we've seen
03:29them vow to strike back so hard and telling Western media that now the Supreme Leader
03:36Khamenei has actually authorized a direct strike on Israel.

Recommended