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00:00 you, Philip. The ceasefire is over. Why? How did it come to an end?
00:05 I think this is the moment that many people have been more or less dreading. I think especially
00:10 if you're living in the Gaza Strip that the bombing raids are going to start again. And
00:14 basically, there's no way out for the nearly 2 million civilians who are in the Gaza Strip
00:20 who now face more misery and deprivation of goods and the way of leading a normal life.
00:27 Well, it all came crashing to an end about five hours ago, just over five hours ago at
00:32 6am local time here in Paris, 5am on the ground in the Gaza Strip and in Israel. What appears
00:39 to have happened is that overnight, Hamas produced a list of hostages it was willing
00:45 to release, which included several dead hostages on the list. Israel said it wasn't interested
00:51 in that, it wanted a new list. It also accused Hamas of not putting on several names of several
00:56 female hostages that it had earlier promised to release. So they asked for a new list to
01:00 be submitted to the Israeli authorities for approval. That list didn't come. Then there
01:05 was a debate that took place within the Israeli government about whether or not to accept
01:09 the first list just to carry on with the ceasefire. But the decision was taken not to accept that
01:14 when there was a rocket launch in the Gaza Strip overnight, which was intercepted by
01:20 the Iron Dome unit in Israel, which stopped that rocket from hitting any Israeli city
01:28 or town. So I think the feeling from Israel was that Hamas wasn't taking this particularly
01:33 seriously and that was the reason that it was taken, that was the decision was taken
01:38 to end that truce and to begin the bombing raids again from 5am local time this morning
01:46 in the Gaza Strip.
01:47 Once the war began, the US Secretary of State made three trips to the region, four trips
01:52 to Israel itself, Antony Blinken making calls for the ceasefire to be prolonged. How frustrated
01:58 is he feeling?
01:59 I think there's a lot of frustration. If you look at what Israel has been calling for all
02:03 the way down the line here, their objectives, they've got a three-point plan, which is no
02:07 secret it's been the plan since the start of the bombing raids on Gaza after the attacks
02:13 in Israel on the 7th of October to crush Hamas is the first one. The second one is to end
02:19 Hamas's influence in Gaza and all other militant groups in the future so they will no longer
02:24 pose a threat to Israel. And the third one is to obtain the release of all hostages.
02:28 Well that is not really very surprising then if you're taking that into account that Israel
02:33 has started this, these bombing raids. Again, I think the frustration has come from the
02:38 fact that all parties involved, be it Qatar, be it Egypt, be it the United States, all
02:43 trying to negotiate round the table with Israel and Hamas to broker a prolongation of that
02:49 ceasefire deal have not worked. And especially for the United States, which is seen as the
02:55 only country that has leeway and power over Israel and would be able to twist Israel's
03:01 arm to accept a prolongation of this ceasefire. So a lot of questions being raised as to,
03:06 well does the US still have that influence over Israel that it used to have when you
03:11 have Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, who's been replying to all those
03:16 efforts to keep the ceasefire going by saying that Israel is going to do what Israel sees
03:20 fit to continue with the situation in Gaza. The problem is also that they know that the
03:26 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs a military victory to shore up support
03:32 within his own government because he's under criticism and can't give too much leeway to
03:36 Hamas because he would be going against his plan, as I was just saying, in trying to say
03:41 that he's going to destroy Hamas. And at the same time, Hamas can't carry on handing out
03:46 hostages to Israel because it's going to undermine its own ability to stand up to Israel. So
03:52 we've got to the point where all the women, the children, the elderly, the infirm, bar
03:59 a few have now been released. What is left is male hostages over the age of about 18
04:06 plus members of the Israeli Defense Forces who are being held by Hamas. They're much
04:11 more useful as a bargaining chip for Hamas, which doesn't really want to release them
04:14 right now because it will make Israel think twice about launching bombing raids if it
04:19 knows it's going to kill its own hostages by doing that. And that's also going to incur
04:23 the wrath and pressure from the United States and other countries for them to come to the
04:27 negotiating table. So it's a whole lot of different elements all brought together. And
04:32 that's why I think we can explain why these bombing raids have started again today.
04:35 After nearly two months of fighting, is it any clearer the long term plan for Gaza?
04:40 No, not really. Because if you look at what is on the cards or what has been discussed
04:44 with Gaza to get rid of Hamas's ideology and the militant group, that's going to be very
04:49 difficult for Israel. It hasn't managed to get rid of his bollard either after threatening
04:53 to do so and trying to do so for several years. Second point, is the Palestinian Authority
04:58 able to come in and take over the running of Gaza? That doesn't seem to be on the cards
05:03 either because it's discredited even in the West Bank. Is the international community
05:09 ready to send in a peacekeeping force? That doesn't look likely either because I don't
05:13 think any country wants to send its own peacekeepers into Gaza where they'd be under threat. So
05:18 all of this looks pretty desperate right now and no real clear plan forward.
05:24 All right, Philip. Thank you very much, Philip Turle, our foreign editor.