News - Middle East: International pressure, economic boycotts and a split cabinet have pushed Israel to consider a truce deal with the Palestinian resistance, says Shabnam Palesa Mohamed, a South African human rights activist, journalist, and lawyer.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Mohamed said Israel intends to further colonize Gaza and exploit the besieged territory’s offshore gas. Therefore, any ceasefire deal must be permanent.

Osama Hamdan, the senior Hamas representative in Lebanon, said on Wednesday that the Israeli occupation is hindering the ceasefire in Gaza after the Palestinian resistance movement submitted its response to the US-drafted and UN-endorsed ceasefire proposal.

He rejected US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks about planning for the governance of post-war Gaza, asserting that Palestinians will decide their future.

“The Israeli proposal seeks a temporary ceasefire to catch its breath before resuming the war,” Hamdan noted in his remarks, referring to the Biden plan, which the US claims has Israel's support.

Regarding what prompted Israeli officials to consider ceasefire negotiations, Mohamed told the Press TV website that international pressure, economic boycotts, and a divided cabinet in Tel Aviv have forced the regime to submit to the resistance.

However, she added, the pretense of being interested in a ceasefire is a cover to procure more deadly weapons from the US military-industrial complex.

Commenting on the full-scale war that Israel has waged against the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and ground, the rights activist stated that what the world is witnessing in Gaza is not a war but genocide rooted in “geo-political and socio-economic factors.”