US, Israeli strikes stall Mideast peace

US strikes in Yemen and Israeli bombings in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza — despite Hamas saying on March 29 it agreed to a ceasefire proposal received from Egypt and Qatar — add more obstacles to resuming peace talks, analysts said.

Continuous bombings and Israeli ground attacks in Gaza and elsewhere have thinned hopes for extended ceasefire while sustaining the Israeli Cabinet amid increasing internal protests, only to inflict more deaths, injuries and sufferings to Palestinians.

A statement published by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on March 29 said Israel had "held a series of consultations pursuant to the proposal that was received from the mediators" and conveyed a counter-proposal "in full coordination" with the United States.

Israel resumed strikes on Gaza in March after a ceasefire agreed in January stalled ahead of its planned second phase.

In another statement published by his office on March 30, Netanyahu said the military pressure on Hamas was working in two ways simultaneously.

On the one hand, Israel is pounding Hamas' military and governing capabilities, and on the other "creating the conditions for releasing our hostages", it said.

Netanyahu credited the combination of military and diplomatic pressure as "the only thing that has returned the hostages".

Jawaid Iqbal, chairman of the Department of West Asian and North African Studies at Aligarh Muslim University in India, said Netanyahu has adopted a militaristic paradigm of "total victory".

"Having abandoned the ceasefire arrangement that resulted in the release of 38 hostages, he has said that from now on, negotiations will only take place under fire," Iqbal told China Daily.

"This aggressive approach is sanctioned by US President Donald Trump, who has openly supported ethnic cleansing in Gaza," he added.

Rasha Al Joundy, a senior researcher at the Dubai Public Policy Research Centre, told China Daily that all activities of escalation complicate both the peace process and Israel's relationship with its neighbors, mainly Egypt and Jordan.

"The steps in Gaza I believe are aimed to push for Hamas' complete surrender no matter what the human cost is. This is why the US and Israel want to extend the ceasefire but not move to the next step of the agreement," said Al Joundy.

Egypt made a proposal to get a ceasefire back on track after Israel resumed its attacks on Gaza in late March.

It was not immediately clear whether the proposal changed before Khalil al-Hayyah, a Hamas leader in Gaza, announced it had been accepted, the Associated Press reported on March 30.

Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin, the West Bank, told China Daily that some people in Gaza are angry at Hamas policies and want the group "to end this massacre and genocide committed by the Israelis".

Hence, he said Hamas was trying to reignite or reactivate some life into the negotiation process. But Israeli exploited the situation by raising their demand for more releases of hostages and shorter period of truce.

As Israel scaled up its offenses, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, issued a fresh order to residents of Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya, and the neighborhoods of Sheikh Zayed, al-Manshiya and Tal al-Zaatar in north Gaza to evacuate.

He said it "was a final warning" before the Israeli military conducted raids on the areas.

This was the second evacuation order for Palestinians in Gaza in just 24 hours. During Eid al-Fitr celebrations to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 31, an evacuation order was issued to residents in south Gaza ahead of attacks.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces launched raids on Lebanon's capital Beirut, for a second time in a week, killing at least three people, and endangering a ceasefire it forged with Hezbollah last November, Al Jazeera reported on April 1.

The Israel Defense Forces said that overnight its forces conducted a strike in the Dahieh area in Lebanon, which they alleged was "a key Hezbollah terrorist stronghold".

"The strike targeted a Hezbollah terrorist who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians," said the IDF.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli raid targeting Beirut's southern suburbs, noting it was the second since the ceasefire agreement on Nov 26 last year and "constitutes a serious warning of the premeditated intentions against Lebanon".

Aoun said Israel's persistence in its aggression "requires us to exert more effort to address Lebanon's friends in the world" and "prevent any violation from the outside or inside infiltrators, who provide an additional pretext for aggression".

Meanwhile, Trump vowed on March 31 that strikes on Yemen's Houthis will continue until they were no longer a threat to US ships.

The Houthis said in a statement early April 1 that it shot down a US MQ-9 drone over Yemen's central province of Marib.

They also affirmed that they would continue to prevent Israeli navigation in the Red Sea until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.

Al Joundy from Dubai said the Houthis in Yemen are in "a dilemma" as she believes Trump would not accept a joint Houthi-Iran policy in the Red Sea.

"The situation could deteriorate dangerously very fast, and regional countries have an invested interest in avoiding this scenario and keeping the peace," said Al Joundy.

Muslim Imran, director of the Asia Middle East Center for Research and Dialogue in Malaysia, told China Daily that Israel's expansion of its occupation of the Golan Heights and other Syrian territories, as well as its continuous bombardments of civilian facilities in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, showed its intentions.

He said Israel is "not satisfied with the ongoing genocide in Gaza" and intends to expand its hegemony in the region amid this "golden opportunity with full American support and international impunity".

"The US goal continues to remain the degradation of Hamas' capacities — a goal that is directly antithetical to any peace process," said Iqbal from India.

"The US-Israel behemoth wants to shape the entire Middle East through a relentless process of unilateral violence. This can only lead to destabilizing consequences. No one can bomb their way to peace and stability," he added.