US Rejects China’s Gaza Mediation Efforts For Legitimizing Hamas

This week a fresh United Nations assessment estimated that the Israeli military (IDF) has placed more than 80% of the Gaza Strip under evacuation orders or designated “no-go zone” – Al Jazeera reports, underscoring this means Palestinians have nowhere to go.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the statement said, “As of July 22, nearly 83 percent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as ‘no-go zones’ by the Israeli military.” The latest order has urged some 400,000 Palestinians out of eastern and central Khan Yunis, where the latest IDF offensive is happening. The new order encompasses nearly nine square kilometers of land.

“The area of the ‘humanitarian zone’ as designated by the Israeli military has thus decreased by 14.8 percent, from 58.9 to 50.2 square kilometers,” the OCHA report continued.

The crisis of “where to go” for internally displaced refugees has been exacerbated already as much of the Strip lacks water, food, and electricity.

Meanwhile President Biden has newly pledged to end the fighting in Gaza by the time he leaves office at the end of this year. According to Axios, “President Biden pledged to spend his remaining six months in office trying to end the Israel-Hamas war and bringing home the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.” He has announced this week, “We are on the verge of getting that.”

But this has been claimed many times before, going back months. Just days ago Secretary Blinken declared that efforts to reach a truce deal are “inside the ten yard line.”

“I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” the US top diplomat said Friday at he Aspen Security Forum.

Still, Hamas continues to fundamentally disagree with both Israel and the US on some key points of a potential ceasefire. It should also be noted that Israel and the US also don’t see eye to eye with China’s diplomatic maneuverings of late regarding the conflict either:

Spokesman Matthew Miller has responded to a Beijing-brokered “national unity” agreement signed between Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian groups today.

The agreement lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza and has been seen as a bulwark against any governance plans that sideline Palestinians.

Miller told reporters the United States opposes any post-war plan that includes Hamas.

“As we have made clear for months, Hamas is a terrorist organization. … When it comes to governance of Gaza at the end of the conflict, there can’t be a role for a terrorist organization,” Miller said. He added the US would “like to see the Palestinian Authority governing a unified Gaza and the West Bank, but no, we cannot support a role for Hamas.”

The China-brokered deal is seen as legitimizing Hamas in preparation of the group having some part in a future Palestinian-administered Gaza. Thus Washington has firmly rejected it.

Beijing likely sees its own approach as more realistic, based on a perspective that Hamas cannot ever ultimately be rooted out by military force. Interestingly, some Israeli current and former officials have appeared to admit the same.