Is Ismail Haniyeh's assassination a setback for Israel-Hamas peace talks?
firstpost.com
The death of Haniyeh, a significant figure in Hamas’s political and diplomatic structure, has raised serious questions about the future of ongoing ceasefire negotiations. American officials had recently indicated that these talks, mediated by Qatar, the United States, and Egypt, were close to yielding a temporary ceasefire and a potential hostage release deal.
However, the assassination has cast doubt on the feasibility of these efforts moving forward.
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Sure. So what? For the next 10 years it averaged nearly 10% GDP growth per year.
I think this rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of the conditions in Gaza pre-October 7th.
Gaza was pretty wealthy. The average income exceeded that of their neighbouring Egyptians. Yes there were difficulties importing some goods or products, but it was rarely impossible for consumer goods. Plus, in the end, they (as we now know) had miles of smuggling tunnels.
That's one reason why Egypt started squealing when Israel began to move into Rafah. There were minimal civilian casualties, but the IDF discovered the vast tunnels, some big enough to move a tank through, between Rafah and Egypt.
The idea that everyone was sort of sitting around in tents and mud is nonsense.
They also received billions of dollars in international aid, which Hamas of course simply spent building weapons and terror dungeons. But many Gazans went to work in Israel, many went to university abroad, built decent lives. All undone because of Hamas, tragically.
Watch this tourism video by a Gazan from 2019. Does this look like a Warsaw Ghetto to you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBo7i-TXy6s
Yes times could be tough. But times are often tough all around the world. Ask the Sudanese or the Ethiopians. They've got average incomes multiple times lower than the Gazans did. They didn't launch genocidal wars or broadcast TV shows for children calling for beheading al-Yahud.