the news broke friday morning would begin a three-day cease-fire between israelis and palestinians fighting in gaza. during the overnight hours before americans even woke up, the cease-fire was gone. lost in a haze of mutual acrimony and continued violence. the intense diplomacy from secretary general ban ki-moon and secretary of state john kerry, and not coming to much. israel has declared they have the intention to keep fighting until all the tunnels leading into israel have been destroyed alliances and support within the region are being fractured and redrawn. >> reporter: when the cease-fire collapsed the finger pointing began. hamas blamed israel for advancing on the town of rafa on the pretext of destroying tunnel. israel said that it was destroying a tunnel when a a bombing occurred. >> that soldier needs to be released as soon as possible. i have been very clear throughout this crisis that israel has a right to defend itself. >> reporter: secretary of state john kerry also blamed hamas, calling it an outrageous violation of the cease-fire he had helped negotiate with the help of u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon. >> they oh ask for maximum restraint and return to the 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire that tragically lasted a short period of time. >> reporter: friday's broken cease-fire comes after an egypt deal was rejected by hamas. in that proposal almost all israel's demands were met but none from hamas. that may signify a larger middle east attitude shift. hamas is the palestinian branch of the muslim brother hood. the same group called an terrorist organization. saudi arabia, and you united emirates do not support hamas. if that isn't complicated enough. syria and iran have long been strong hamas allies but both countries have cooled their support. when syria descended into civil war hamas sided with the rebels as they are a both sunni led groups. syria's president bashar al-assad is from a branch of shia islam and iran is the leading shia power. when hamas sided with the anti-assad rebels, iran stopped giving hamas more than $10 million a month. now israel's long-standing ally, the u.s. is reaching out to new players to help mediate a bill, qatar and turkey, both support hamas. >> we'll begin this look at hamas and shifting alliances in the wider middle east. with a member of the palestinian parliament for jericho and long-time chief negotiator for the palestinians in peace talks with israel. welcome to "inside story." >> thank you. >> it was just a few months that it was announced that a deal has been reached and there was a new unity government once again linking up gaza with the west bank bring authority. what has this conflict done with that relationship? will it survive this battle? >> indeed, it will. the whole war being raged by israel against the palestinian people has is not just for war. there is a political objective here. number one, he wants to destroy the two-state solution once and for all. number two, he wants to keep the gaza strip separate from the west bank and under mind the government and he wants to under mind the agreement between hamas to reconcile, and this war is being waged against palestinian national project palestinian state. what israel is doing in gaza today is not so different. they're defending occupation and their settlement and committing massacres by the full meaning of the word, and they are committing war crimes. yesterday i was in doha meeting with morning minister of qatar, and we reached the foreign minute of egypt, and we were able to reach 72-hour cease-fire. in which secretary general ban ki-moon and secretary of state john kerry. just two hours before the cease-fire was supposed to go into force, the israeli army demolished 19 homes in rafa. using the pretext of looking for tunnels. and then between 8:00 to 9:30 another 21 homes were destroyed by the israeli army. they killed five palestinians, two israelis, and that's what happened. so what happened is that i had information from different sources that palestinians are to be blamed. if it's about finger pointing and blame assignment, then we are under cease-fire. >> let me jump in, let me jump in, i understand that you hold israel responsible for the breaking of the cease-fire. i understand your point about their intentions to break apart the new alliance between fatah, the pa and the hamas government. but at the same time there is a growing sense in the region of the isolation of hamas. has there been any coordination between your government, the palestinian parliament, the government that sits in the west bank, and the ongoing attempts in gaza to fight against israel? snow went to war we've been in touch with european, africans, ations, name it. we will speak as palestinians, what is being targeted by israel is not gaza or hamas. what's being targeted are palestinians. and the solution of the palestinian state. we know egypt and qatar, this and that, i we have to stop the bloodshed. we have today 1600 palestinians in the last 24 days there is the killing of women and children. in many areas we have total destruction of villages and so on. they cannot get the bodies from underneath the rubble. we have 8,900 wounded. okay, now those who are trying to finger point at us and blame us, i want to ask them, how many israeli s have been killed? many israeli women killed? how many israeli children? none. none. what is happening, a country of f-15s, f-16s, tanks, they're destroying it. they're simply destroying it. that's the truth. now we want--we understand people interest's. we understand nation's interests. but this cannot be fueled by palestinian children's blood. >> also with us for this edition of the program joining us for our conversation. what do you make of hamas' position in the wider region now after three weeks of this war. >> we think see things have been going exactly wrong direction for them. the government in gaza was not impressive. we want to talk about the isolation hamas. in this war netanyahu may have brought a god given gift to hamas politically speaking. hamas is i being weakened in power and political leverage. we have seen before the war a maples because rise of hamas, and the palestinian authorities, the plo itself, they take hamas demands and reproduce them as palestinian demands. this is the case on israel and netanyahu policies. coming back to isolation, one would ask, in fact, after this war who would be isolated really? if you think of the players in this game who is playing it was italy tacitly, and blaming the distance in gaza as the man responsible for this war, this is a green light for israel to continue its war against gaza and the palestinians. >> let me turn it over here to washington . there is an interesting point. weakened in the eyes of whom? perhaps there is a gap between leaders and officers who fly on national jets back and forth between capitals and the people who make up the populations of these countries. >> i agree completely. hamas has actually gained considerably from this conflict. a month ago they were isolated in the region as well as alienated from the rest of palestinian public . partly because of their began against, and partly because the mood has changed. they're still isolated in the region but they have great support in the palestinian public. their bread and butter, as they say, all politics is local. their future rests on the palestinian public, and less on egypt and saudi arabia. so hamas has made that gamble, and they have -i agree. the israeli approach has been very short sited and only strengthens hamas at the expense of the two-state solution. at the expense of even american credibility. >> ear' going to take a short break. when we come back we'll take a look at the solution of hamas and it's future in the region. this is inside story. stay with us. welcome back to "inside story" on al jaa america. i am ray suarez, we are continuing our conversation now on the fault lines in the middle east as the fighting continues between israel and hamas in gaza. with us from jericho, sir, there has been a lot of nervous watching of the west bank itself and the communities there. what has been going on there where you live, your hometown in jericho, for example, while the fighting has been going on in the gaza strip? >> the situation in the west bank is really boiling. it's a pressure situation. there are clashes all over the west bank and jericho as well as east jerusalem, bethlehem, all over. all over. as a matter of fact, i just came back from jericho hospital a while ago. we have about four kids, you know, aged 16 to 18 wounded, some of them are family. and a pal 10 general was killed. was killed putting the number of palestinians killed since the beginning, in the last 24 hours to about 26 palestinians, more than 1,000 palestinians wounded in clashes. it's a pressure cooker situation here. we don't see ourselves anymore here. with all due respect to what i hear, we believe that this war is being waged against all of us as palestinians, we don't refer to us we form a delegation that will go to coul cairo tomorrow composed of all palestinians we did not name because of their factions, they are all palestinians, we are all palestinians and i think we are above hamas and all of our factions at this stage, we are palestinians being targeted by the raise elie war machine, and i should note here that hamas did not begin this war. it was netanyahu who began this war using the disappearance and abduction of three israelis and then they did it in jerusalem and rained a war and started bombarding the gaza strip. it should be noted that mr. netanyahu when we announced the national consensus government the reconciliation, he suspended the negotiations, and he said i am not going to continues negotiations and he said either you choose hamas or you choose us. the of course the choice would be we choose pal step ideas all the time. it's a political party. and when we differ, we go back to ballots and that's the whole idea of the national consideration. >> let me turn on our other scholars at that point because that's a fascinating inside. if they no longer now are differentialing between fatah members of the delegation and hamas members of the delegation, does that make it harder for governments like egypt, which are terribly opposed to hamas, to play that game with the two locuses of palestinian thought and power and influence? >> it does. i think at least it creates a bit of a safety net for hamas, so that hamas is not completely isolated. and its most secure place of course, is in its own domestic context. regardless of what the egyptians or saudis or americans think of hamas. but that's in theory, and that can holds hold for a certain period of time. but the egyptian calculations, the israeli calculations and american calculations are largely indifferent to palestinian unity. and they are much more concerned with particularly the egyptians and the israelis are more concerned with hurting hamas than they are with helping the palestinians or maintaining palestinian unity. and herein i think lies a very fundamental american policy failure as we know the united states has failed in peace making, but now we have also seen the flip side of that. they have failed miserably at conflict prevention. so both sides of the mediation role, the united states has simply not shown itself to be a credible actor. and to echo something that was said when he said that we are cost free, yes, indeed in washington palestinians are absolutely cost free. whether they are hamas, whether they are fatah, whether they are palestinian children in refugees camps they are basically cost free. and that's a realization i think that the pa* palestinian leaderp needs to tin certainlyize. >> you just heard him talking about heading to cairo in a delegation that is simply tann tal stupalestinians not made upf different factions the world looks at it in a different way. if you are doha it's one thing, but if you are in cairo or iman it's something else altogether. is the world ready for this new united front that you just heard the doctor talking about? >> i think the palestinians, this is the greatest achievements of this war and as i have said as well, the unity, the palestinian unity is one main target of this war if not even the main target. in my understanding i believe that netanyahu's war against gaza is to break the unity, to break the national unity government ask to go back to the status quo. the status quo which is approved by israel before the war has three pillars, one is the palestinian governing, the second is the stability and security in the west bank. and these two -- these pillars should be maintained. if the palestinians come together it means that we have to do our best to keep them less united. this just justification and excuse for netanyahu to evade peace takes and a solution whatsoever. and to expose hamas and say that hamas is the main responsible for the continuation of the conflict. and i do believe that as well that netanyahu and israel at large don't want to see a moderate hamas. they want to see a hamas that goes back to struggles, goes back to military, because, again, this gives them the pretext. and directly speaking, in fact, every time they come to gaza strip for the sake the mowing the lawn as they say, which is to reduce the u capabilities of hamas, they end up exactly with the opposite. with a growing, if you will, growing the lawn, growing the military capabilities of hamas. >> i have to take a break right there. we are going take a short break and when we come back, we'll close our conversation on hamas and the future of the conflict between israel and gaza after this. this is "inside story." stay with us. continues tonight. >> we have been hearing a lot of tank shelling coming from where we are, here. >> every single one of these buildings shook violently. >> for continuing coverage of the israeli / palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america, your global news leader. >> this, is what we do. >> al jazeera america. >> you're watching "inside story" on al jazeera america. today the president of the united states blamed hamas for the collapse of the cease-fire and said a peace deal was impossible without the release of the captured israeli soldier. we just have a few minutes left. as you head to cairo, i know it's in the nature of being a negotiator that you have a certain amount of built-in optimism can you defeat that pessimism that you heard from barack obama this afternoon? he sounded very dubious that a cease-fire can be put back together. >> our delegation is going to cairo tomorrow. we want to show the world the side that wants to make a cease-fire and the side that continues the war. since the israelis broke the cease-fire we have 51 palestinians killed. we need to stop this aggression. there are children being killed every two hours, and every two hours there is a palestinian child between ages 5 and 8 being killed every day. what we need is to put an end to the aggression, and then we're open, we hope that the international community and president obama will force israelis to show up. >> this presents everyone with a nasty political democrat ma. --dilemma, how do you see this ending? are we at the beginning of a very long conflict? >> there is no credible third party that can intervene and actually insert some rationality into this back and forth escalation. traditionally that was the role of egypt backed up by the united states. right now egypt is, in fact, a party to the conflict. it would like to see hamas destroyed as much as benjamin netanyahu would. and that's where american leadership comes in. the united states should be above the fray. i'm afraid that i think there are certain things the united states can do. it would require a major reversal in how the united states has approached this conflict in the past, the separation of gaza in the west bank cannot continue. the division of palestinians which was essentially a prerequisite for american policies cannot continue. there are new realities that the united states need to come to terms with, and in a way bring the israelis along. if they can't then i'm afraid we are in for not just a long period of death and destruction in gaza, but there is actually no hope for a long -term peace. we're likely to see this cycle repeated over and over again until there are serious reversals in how the u.s. approaches this. >> here in washington, we didn't get a chance to come back to you. we will have you back on again. i'm afraid this conflict is not over and there is still more of this story to tell. thanks for being with us from the united kingdom and a pleasure to talk to you again. thank you. >> that brings us to the end of this edition of "inside story." thanks for being with us. in washington, i'm ray suarez. >> emergency nurse maria connolly is leaving her job at the royal hospital, preston, to work in ciudad juarez, mexico. she'll find a city engulfed in a brutal gang war. >> do we know if it's a gun or a knife? >> where doctors and nurses are targets anha

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