Palestinian displaced persons flee Gaza City towards the southern areas of the Strip (AFP)

All proposals to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and release Israeli prisoners revolve in a vicious circle, as they clash with one main obstacle: Israel’s demand that “Hamas” relinquish its security and political control over the Strip and leave it as part of any agreement, while the movement insists on linking the release of all Israelis to a definitive end to the war.

On this basis, Hamas welcomed the words of US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, who called on the movement to immediately release the twenty Israeli prisoners so that “things change quickly, and the war ends,” which is approaching its second year. The movement expressed its readiness for a “comprehensive deal.”

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered Hamas’s response as “another maneuver with nothing new,” reaffirming that the war will not end except by releasing all Israeli prisoners, disarming Hamas, imposing Israeli security control over the Strip, and establishing an alternative civilian administration.

In this context, Israel is preparing to launch the “Gideon Vehicles-2” operation to occupy Gaza City and push one million people to flee southwards. Thus, the war’s goal goes beyond releasing Israeli prisoners to reoccupying the entire Strip, without any legal repercussions on the Israeli government, as it speaks of “control” rather than “occupation,” a linguistic manipulation that exempts it from duties towards two million Palestinians.

The most aware of Netanyahu’s goals are the families of the Israeli prisoners, who explicitly appeal to Trump to pressure the Israeli Prime Minister to accept a partial or comprehensive deal to recover the prisoners, as they realize that expanding the war endangers the lives of the twenty prisoners. As calls for a ceasefire agreement increase, Netanyahu responds by accusing the prisoners’ families of inciting his assassination.

What worsens the dilemma is the contradiction in Trump’s own statements, some of which encourage Netanyahu to reoccupy Gaza, while others leave room to work on a comprehensive agreement to end the war. Since early August, US special envoy Steve Witkoff informed Israeli prisoners’ families that Trump wants an agreement to release all prisoners at once, which aligns with what the US president wrote on the “Truth Social” platform on Wednesday.

The question now, as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow, is: Is Trump ready to push for a comprehensive agreement that not only aims to stop the war in Gaza but also spares Israel from the wave of planned recognitions of the State of Palestine in September?

As for Netanyahu’s acquiescence to reoccupying Gaza and forcing its residents to accept voluntary displacement or death by starvation, and ignoring the new maps drawn by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for the West Bank, this will be the beginning of redrawing new maps for the entire Middle East amid ongoing unrest and eternal wars.