All Eyes on Rafah and Sinwar

On Tuesday, Arab media widely reported that Hamas accept the ceasefire proposal put forward by US President Joe Biden and agreed in a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday.

Al Arabiya reported a senior official of the Palestinian group as saying that ‘Hamas accepts a UN resolution backing a plan to end the war with Israel in Gaza and is ready to negotiate details.’

Al Jazeera stated that the news came from senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri speaking to the Reuters news agency.

While Asharq Al-Awsat noted that Sami Abu Zuhri, who is based outside Gaza, said Hamas accepted the ceasefire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the details, but added that, ‘it was up to Washington to ensure that Israel abides by it.’

However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whilst describing the statement as hopeful, repeated his call for Hamas to accept the plan and said the onus was on "one guy" hiding "ten storeys underground in Gaza" to make the casting vote.

He was referring to Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, and is well aware that it is Sinwar’s decision which counts, not what Hamas officials elsewhere say.

And that is a major problem, as highlighted by a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday. While most others want to stop the increase in civilian casualties caused by the fighting, Sinwar sees such deaths as working "to his advantage."

Many civilians in Gaza realise this, but it is rare for them to speak up against it, as they did in clips shown here by Honest Reporting.