Israeli leaders have said their military objective is to remove Hamas from power in Gaza and to strip it of its military capabilities. U.S. officials argue that if a ceasefire were agreed upon before those objectives were reached, Hamas would use the ceasefire to plan and prepare for attacks, as has been the case following previous escalations.
“A ceasefire … at this moment, would leave Hamas still in a position with 200-plus hostages, a very large military infrastructure, and the capacity to continue attacks,” Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs for the State Department, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. “And by the way, a senior Hamas leader last week made very clear publicly that they would look to commit an Oct. 7-style massacre again and again and again.”
Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said in an interview that was translated by Memri that “the Al-Aqsa Flood,” which is what Hamas called the Oct. 7 attacks, “is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight.”
Another major factor is the over 200 people who are held hostage in Gaza by the terrorists who carried out the Oct. 7 attack. Only five of the hostages have been freed, while the well-being and safety of the remaining victims remain unknown. Israeli leaders said any ceasefire would have to include their release.
“The fighting continues, and there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Thursday.
Israel has launched a significant military operation in Gaza, and the first phase included thousands of airstrikes, many of which were in areas with a densely populated civilian population. U.S. officials estimated that thousands of civilians have been killed since Israel responded to the Oct. 7 attacks.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said the death toll has exceeded 10,000 people, though that total includes civilians and combatants. U.S. officials questioned the validity of the tally, while Leaf acknowledged during the hearing, “We think they’re very high, frankly, and it could be that they’re even higher than are being cited.”
“In this period of conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are,” she said. “We’ll know only after the guns fall silent. We take in sourcing from a variety of folks who are on the ground.”
Instead, the Biden administration has pushed Israel to implement short pauses in the fighting for humanitarian purposes, including allowing civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate south and to get aid and resources to those who need it.
Kirby said Israel will begin daily four-hour pauses to allow for civilians to evacuate.