Israel has made lawlessness into an official policy

If the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, possessed anything like the qualities of statesmanship demanded at a moment such as this, he would by now have seized the offer of a peace deal from Hamas, agreed a ceasefire, begun the long and difficult process of winding down the pitiless war in Gaza and, of enormous immediate benefit, secured the return of about half the remaining 20 hostages thought to still be alive, as well as the bodies of others.

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The worst sufferings of the families affected would be that much closer to a conclusion - and the much wider pain and hardship, including hunger, being endured by innocent Palestinian civilians would also be relieved.

The ceasefire deal is by no means a perfect offer, and - it bears repeating - there was never any reason for the Hamas militants to take any hostages or commit any of the atrocities that occurred on 7 October 2023. According to Qatari sources who’ve been involved in brokering the talks, the deal suggested by Hamas and now put forward to the Israeli government is “almost identical” to an American proposal that the Israelis had previously accepted.

And yet Mr Netanyahu seems intent on finding excuses and distractions to avoid making peace. He has not yet explicitly rejected the deal - but asked by Australian television if Israel planned to take over all of Gaza and eliminate Hamas even if the group agreed to a truce and hostage deal, he was clear: “We’re going to do that anyway. That there was never a question that we're not going to leave Hamas there.”

Simultaneously, he now wants to restart negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all of Israel’s remaining hostages - but it is clear he wants to end the war on Israel’s terms.