In case you needed reminding, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spelt it out once again: Israel will continue to build settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and it will not negotiate or agree to a ceasefire with Hamas. Egyptian-brokered talks between Hamas and Islamic Jihad, aimed at achieving a ceasefire agreement with Israel, collapsed today due to Israeli rejectionism. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha explained,

“In Hamas we stressed our position that calm must be simultaneous, reciprocal and comprehensive.”

Similarly, Islamic Jihad leader Khalid Habib stated:

“The Zionist occupation wanted calm to be limited to Gaza and we say any calm must be comprehensive and reciprocal.”

Israel refused on both counts, instead threatening yet more military aggression:

“We are not talking to Hamas and we are not going to compromise with someone that is consistently shooting rockets on the heads of Israelis … We will deal with Hamas in other ways and these ways will be very painful.”

Palestinians in Gaza, where the siege has stopped even the sewage system from functioning, were given a taster of these attacks on “Hamas” today, when Israeli forces demolished three houses and a poultry farm and bulldozed 13 acres of olive trees (according to an IDF spokesperson, the trees posed a grave “security threat” and the chickens were “up to something”).

The last time a ceasefire threatened to break out, Israel thwarted it with five deliberate killings in the West Bank. According to B’Tselem, in a report published today, it looks as though at least four of those killings were extra-judicial executions.

Israel plainly doesn’t want a ceasefire and has no desire to halt the firing of Qassams - on the contrary, it has repeatedly intervened to ensure that the violence continues. The reason is clear, and openly stated: Israel and the U.S. intend to destroy Hamas, whether directly or through their proxies in Ramallah, and if that means destroying Gaza then so be it.