As Hamas, Netanyahu 'accept' US plan, Sinwar 'riding high,' far from surrender
Israel’s updated assessments point to the fact that Hamas is far from surrendering and that the group’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar and his surviving leadership partners are convinced time is on their side.
TEL AVIV — The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution Monday urging Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region to promote the peace plan.
Blinken told reporters Tuesday that Netanyahu had agreed to the cease-fire plan, while Reuters reported, citing a senior Hamas official, that the group also accepted the UN resolution backing the plan. However, the details still need to be negotiated and Israel or Hamas would need to actually finalize it.
More than eight months after the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas, Israel is a long way from the "total victory" to which it aspires, while Hamas is closer to its goals than Israel is to its own.
On the battlefield, Israel has scored impressive victories, slowly eroding Hamas' centers of power, dismantling almost all its battalions (fewer than three from a total of over 20 are left) and assuming control over the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt that has been the site of the smuggling that allowed Hamas' buildup.
