The question between Israel and Hamas negotiating a ceasefire is completely absurd. 

  Hamas is known by the United States government as the group who utilizes cyber espionage and computer network exploitation operations. Many others know Hamas as the group who fights for a Palestinian province. The US State Department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in Oct. of 1997. Israel should not negotiate a ceasefire for as long as the terrorist group Hamas is still a presence in Gaza or influence anywhere in the world. 

  As new evidence of Palestinian militant atrocities against Israeli civilians emerges, Israel’s military has launched its offensive into Gaza. Built underneath the Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip is a headquarters for Hamas. Hamas is using Al-Shifa as a shield to keep their headquarters maintained. When Israel shut off electricity to the Gaza strip they sent constant supplies to Al-Shifa to keep the hospital running. Hamas would steal the Israeli resources and use it to power the command center beneath. According to The New York Times, “On Thursday night, Nov. 18, the Israeli military escorted journalists from The New York Times through a landscape of wartime destruction to a stone-and-concrete shaft on the grounds of Al-Shifa with a staircase descending into the earth — evidence, it said, of a Hamas military facility under the hospital.”

  Hamas is using their people as a shield. According to Stratcomcoe.org, “The use of human shields can be considered an example of ‘lawfare’ – i.e. the use of the legal system against an enemy by damaging or delegitimizing them, tying up their time or winning a public relations victory.” 

  This is exactly what Hamas is trying to do and they’ve been behind this strategy since 2007 in almost all of their conflicts with Israel. 

  Israel has a defense budget unlike any other country in the Middle East. If Israel wanted a flat plain within the Gaza Strip, they could turn the entirety of it into glass. Israel only uses a fraction of their military power in the Gaza Strip. Why? They care about civilians. They especially follow Geneva Convention protocol where Hamas is an Iranian backed terrorist group. “War is hell,” Sherman from The National Review said. “But some things are worse. This was. Civilians were murdered in their cars, their homes, on the street. Captured soldiers were beheaded; so were babies. Women were raped, naked bodies desecrated and paraded before jeering crowds. Hundreds, including children and grandmothers, were taken back to Gaza as hostages. The war crimes were orgiastic, public, celebratory. Hamas posted videos of its Jew-killing for the world to see and admire.”

  Israel should not hold a ceasefire as long as the terrorist group Hamas is a presence on this Earth. Hamas must be annihilated. As the dead are counted, a difficult task given that Hamas torturers burnt and disfigured many, it has been alleged that 20 or more Americans are missing, including dual nationals and tourists to Israel. Some of the hostages may be among them. 

  What will the Biden administration do about it?