“Egypt has proposed a two-day truce in Gaza as a prelude to a longer cease-fire. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Hamas to free four of the Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. He proposed more negotiations to follow that release within ten days.
Meanwhile, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 45 people, mainly in the north of the strip. UN Chief Antonio Guterres said he was shocked by what he called the "harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction." Egypt proposes temporary truce in Gaza. DW speaks with Hans-Jakob Schindler, Middle East security expert and Senior Director at the Counter Extremism Project in Berlin”

“He was the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip - and is now the head of the entire organization. Jihia Sinwar, the terror group announced this week on the short message service Telegram, has been appointed head of the political office. This means that power within Hamas is concentrated on the man the Israelis have been hunting for months - and who is said to have successfully hidden in the tunnels of Gaza. […] In fact, Sinwar had the most influence within the terrorist organization, even though Haniya held the political leadership position on paper. "As a result of the attack on October 7, the Hamas leadership in Gaza took actual control of the terrorist group," explains Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the international Counter Extremism Project.”

"Norman Roule, former national intelligence manager for Iran and senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, said, 'The intelligence community is vast, but so are the number of priorities assigned to its staff.' He added, 'Absent steady policymaker demand, the system moves resources — and demands on our partners — to targets that are perceived to have greater policymaker interest.'"

"…Hans-Jakob Schindler sees three main reasons for the increasing violence in the West Bank. ‘On the one hand, Hamas, which has been under enormous military pressure in Gaza for months, is of course trying to activate its networks in the West Bank as well,’ the senior director of the international Counter Extremism Project told the Tagesspiegel. Secondly, attacks by radical settlers in the West Bank have steadily increased since October 2023. ‘This has caused the situation to escalate further.’ And thirdly, it can be assumed that Iran, whose announced retaliatory strike has so far failed to materialize, is trying to operate via the West Bank. ‘The Israeli security services regularly find weapons that Iran is trying to smuggle into the West Bank,’ says Schindler."

“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.”

"Germany can only keep repeatedly raising this, Hans-Jakob Schindler, analyst for the Middle East at the nonprofit organization Counter Extremism Project, told DW. Israeli resettlement plans for the Gaza Strip, which two Israeli cabinet ministers publicly support, would be 'the surest way to securely anchor Islamist extremism in the future in Gaza, and probably among Palestinians in general,' Schindler believes."

"Germany can only insist on that connection over and over again, Hans-Jakob Schindler, a Middle East expert at the international organization Counter Extremism Project, told DW. Israeli repopulation plans in the Gaza Strip, proposed by two members of the Israeli cabinet, would be 'the best recipe for Islamist extremism to take firm root in the future among Palestinians in Gaza and probably beyond.'"

"'Without the Gaza war, IS would get the headlines,' said Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project think tank. 'It puts considerable pressure on IS to remain relevant.'"

"Hezbollah, just like Hamas, is backed by Israel's arch-rival Iran and is committed to the destruction of Israel. The think tank Counter Extremism Project (CEP) says, 'In February 1985, Hezbollah formally emerged and issued its manifesto. Hezbollah pledged loyalty to Khomeini [Iran's Supreme Leader], demanded the expulsion of foreign forces (i.e., Israel, France, and the U.S.) from Lebanon, called for Israel's destruction, and called for the creation of an Islamic state in Lebanon. As an Iranian proxy, Hezbollah's perceived threat environment is almost identical to Iran’s—Tehran’s enemies are Hezbollah’s enemies. Like Iran, Hezbollah considers the U.S. and Israel to be its chief foes.'"