Doha, Qatar — In the continuation of the Gaza genocide, Israeli warplanes ravage the battered landscape of Gaza, killing dozens in overnight airstrikes on civilians and tightening their chokehold on humanitarian aid. Hamas has formally submitted a revised ceasefire proposal through Qatari mediators. The latest draft, described by insiders as “more constructive” than prior versions, signals a potential pivot in the grueling nine-month war, but Israel’s blunt withdrawal of negotiators from Doha signals deepening distrust.
The response from Hamas includes a set of hardline conditions: the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces to their positions before March 2, a resumption of aid delivery exclusively under the supervision of the United Nations, and a legally binding commitment from Israel not to resume military attacks during or after the proposed truce. The submission, which includes detailed maps and humanitarian access corridors, represents a significant escalation in Hamas’s diplomatic demands amid the ongoing destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly yanked his negotiation team out of Doha, accusing Hamas of not being “serious,” a deflection that conveniently masks Israel’s unwillingness to consider any ceasefire terms that limit its military dominance or demand accountability. The move, announced just hours after Hamas submitted its revised proposal, reflects Tel Aviv’s growing paranoia over international scrutiny, especially around prisoner swaps and third-party control of humanitarian aid, which Israel routinely weaponizes.
Despite the hardline stance from Netanyahu’s office, some Israeli officials privately described the new Hamas proposal as “workable,” according to USNews.com. The fracture within Israel’s security cabinet lays bare a regime at odds with itself, torn between its obsession with military supremacy and mounting international pressure to stop ethnic cleansing of palestinians in Gaza. While some officials quietly admit a truce is viable, Netanyahu’s camp clings to war, revealing a government more concerned with optics and vengeance than halting the bloodshed.
According to Al Jazeera, Gaza’s health ministry confirmed two more deaths from starvation in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll from hunger to at least 115, yet another stain on Israel’s brutal siege. With hospitals reduced to rubble and aid deliberately strangled, Gaza’s collapsed healthcare system is drowning in cases of malnutrition, dehydration, and mangled bodies from relentless Israeli drone attacks on civilians that continue to pound overcrowded refugee camps with surgical cruelty.
The United States, unsurprisingly, responded with its usual hypocrisy. Special envoy and Trump crony Steve Witkoff paused Washington’s so-called “diplomatic efforts,” blaming Hamas for “a lack of good faith,”, all while shielding Israel’s genocidal campaign. His theatrics in Doha, capped off with a grand exit aboard a military jet, were less about diplomacy and more about maintaining the illusion of neutrality. Washington’s empty rhetoric about reengaging if talks become “serious” rings hollow, given its unwavering support for genocide of Palestinians by Israel, as The Guardian noted.
Complicating the stalled negotiations is the thorny issue of prisoner exchanges, exposing once again Israel’s double standard on justice. Hamas, confronting a genocidal war machine, is demanding the release of 200 prisoners serving life terms and 2,000 others swept up in Israel’s post-October 7 dragnet. Israel’s insult of a counteroffer, 125 lifers and 1,200 detainees, was swiftly rejected. While Tel Aviv frames the talks as a matter of security, it’s clear that Israel prefers to keep thousands of Palestinians caged rather than acknowledge their right to resist occupation. The prisoner file has become a brutal chessboard, with Israel clinging to human lives as bargaining chips, according to Fox News.
Qatar and Egypt, the primary mediators in the region, continue behind-the-scenes diplomacy to salvage what remains of the Doha initiative. As per Axios, there are growing expectations that European cities like Rome or Bristol could host the next round of indirect negotiations. However, the timing remains uncertain, and the withdrawal of both Israeli and American teams has cast a pall over further progress.
Hamas’s revised proposal, though offering a clear diplomatic off-ramp, dares to demand what Israel fears most: accountability through third-party oversight and the release of Palestinians rotting in its prisons. Unsurprisingly, such basic conditions are too much for a regime built on impunity and occupation. As Israel stalls and dodges, Gaza descends further into a hell of its making, where starvation is engineered, bombs rain down with clinical precision, and the illusion of diplomacy is kept alive only to whitewash a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing.
