“It could alleviate the suffering of many people in the southern Gaza Strip a little and at least temporarily spare them from new fighting: Israel's military announced "daily tactical pauses" on Sunday. Between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time (7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central European Time), the guns will be silent in selected parts of the coastal area, meaning that army operations will cease. Israel says it wants to enable the delivery of larger quantities of aid supplies. The ceasefire will apply to the route from the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Salah al-Din Street and then further north. The decision was made following consultations with the United Nations and other organizations, it said. […] Hans-Jakob Schindler believes it is plausible that the ceasefire is justified by humanitarian concerns. However, according to the senior director of the international Counter Extremism Project, military considerations are probably also behind the decision.”

“Is this the beginning of the end of the Gaza war? On Monday, the UN Security Council adopted a ceasefire proposal in Gaza from US President Joe Biden. 14 countries agreed, only Russia abstained. Israel has been fighting the terrorist organization Hamas for eight months, and the international community is desperately looking for a way to end the war. The hope now is that the actors involved - Israel and Hamas - will also support the plan. It could not only be a step towards resolving the conflict in the Middle East, but could also be important for Biden's election campaign. […] "While Hamas would give up its guarantee of survival by releasing the hostages, Israel would have to release a considerable number of Palestinian prisoners, which could be exploited by Hamas for propaganda purposes," says Hans-Jakob Schindler of the international Counter Extremism Project.”

“Only one third of Hamas terrorists eliminated, two thirds of their tunnels still intact. According to a report by the magazine "Politico" analysts of the US intelligence services come to this assessment. The Islamists are also said to have succeeded in recruiting a large number of new fighters in recent months. On Sunday, Hamas also proved that it is still able to fire rockets at the greater Tel Aviv area. This is all bad news for Israel. After almost eight months of war, the country seems to miss one of its main goals: the complete destruction of Hamas.” 

"Austin told a US Senate hearing the Biden administration was concerned about Israel launching a major offensive in Rafah, without a plan to protect civilians there. Meanwhile, Israel continues to bombard the city. The army says it's conducting a limited operation to kill Hamas fighters and dismantle the group's remaining infrastructure.

For more on this, we talk to Hans-Jakob Schindler. He is the Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project."

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "We are close undoubtedly, but I'd like to add that a word of caution that we've been close before. It has frequently really been a problem that the leadership in Gaza of Hamas was not willing to accept the conditions of a deal that the Hamas leadership outside Gaza, for example in Qatar, was willing to accept."