Ramallah: As the conflict over the Gaza Strip moves to the political, diplomatic and international judiciary arenas, Israeli media has advised people around the world to not be impressed by the showy celebrations on the streets of Gaza and claimed that Hamas is militarily and politically weakened.

Ron Ben-Yishai of the Yediot Ahranoth reported on Wednesday that Israel’s demand for demilitarization is not off the table and that Israel has a simple equation: Gaza rehabilitation for demilitarization of heavy weapons. The daily said that real test of the ceasefire will be the details of the agreement that the parties will begin to discuss next month.

The daily recommended Israel be prepared for Hamas applying pressure on Israel to accept its demands by renewing its attacks. Rather than calling the current situation a permanent ceasefire, therefore, the daily claims it is more appropriate to call it a conditional ceasefire.

The US is moving ahead with a Security Council resolution that would anchor the ceasefire in international law and which also mention Israel’s demilitarization requirements. The Yediot Ahranoth stressed that this process, initiated by the UA and the European Union within the framework of the Security Council, serves to reinforce the deal reached by the Egyptians, Hamas and Israel. The daily argued that if the Security Council passes a resolution in the coming days that mentions the demilitarization of Gaza, it would represent a real boost to Israel. Israeli must strive for a stable period of calm without giving up its demand for demilitarization, and to assume that if Gaza is rehabilitated, the Gaza population will then have something to lose.

Israelis believe their military assault on Gaza did achieve its objectives and that if the ceasefire holds the operation will definitely have fulfilled its goals.

Dr. Ghassan Al Khatib, a former Palestinian minister and former speaker for the Palestinian government who is a political analyst, downplayed the importance of the celebrations of victory in the Palestinian territories. “This is a trivial matter and the politicians have their own standards for victory and defeat and create the impression they want within the public,” he told Gulf News.

The ceasefire, he said, does not mean an end to hostilities and fighting can be resumed any moment. “The causes of the war have not been removed. The blockade is still imposed on the strip,” he said.

To Al Khatib, demilitarization of Gaza is a long term Israeli strategy to eliminate Hamas’s ability to rearm the coastal enclave. “Israel plans to implement this policy gradually. Israel knows that this will take time, but Israel seeks to start with the rearming,” he said.

“Israel needs a cover from the international community to get this mission achieved such as the US attempts at the UN Security Council to issue a resolution that mentions Gaza demilitarization,” he said, adding that Israel has made the entry of goods to Gaza dependent on disarmament.

Al Khatib believes that Hamas will not agree to this but that the Islamist movement is trapped in its challenging surrounding environment. “It should be clear that Hamas’s capabilities after the assault are not like those of Hamas a few years ago,” he said, stressing that the humanitarian resupply conditions in Gaza under the ceasefire will be unchanged from those in existence before the invasion.