The leader of the political arm of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyahstated that the group will only accept the “complete cessation of hostilities” in the Gaza Strip and pointed to Israel by lack of progress both at that point and at the exchange of prisoners for hostages.
Haniyah stressed that the Israeli authorities must release the Palestinian prisoners who are imprisoned and emphasized the importance of ending the “unjust siege” against the Gazan population, the Europa Press news agency reported.
“The (Israeli) occupation continues to maneuver and postpone issues that concern our people, while its position focuses on the release of prisoners detained by the resistance,” Haniyah said.
He stressed that for Hamas, “achieving an exchange agreement through which our prisoners, especially the oldest ones and those with long sentences, are released is one of the objectives of these negotiations, and this cannot be skipped.”
The leader added that Hamas from the beginning responded positively to the proposals of several countries to reach an agreement with Israel to “stop the aggression” against the Palestinian people and lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“The resistance will not accept a truce unless the aggression against the Gaza Strip is stopped, the Israeli army is withdrawn, the blockade of the Palestinian enclave is lifted, safe havens for displaced people are guaranteed, and commitments are made to rebuild the Strip,” he stressed, quoted by the Russian news agency Sputnik.
In this sense, he assured that he was working with “all available means to stop the bloodbath carried out by the enemy 24 hours a day.”
A delegation from the Palestinian Islamist group participated this week in Cairo in a series of meetings to discuss a proposal from the United States, Egypt and Qatar for a ceasefire after four months of hostilities in Gaza.
The plan was also discussed by the heads of American and Israeli intelligence, the Qatari premier and Egyptian officials.
However, this push for a new truce has not prospered for the moment and fear is growing over the consequences of a military operation in Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where 1.4 million displaced civilians are crowded within the enclave.
US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from attacking Rafah without a plan to protect civilians.
For his part, Netanyahu insists that he will continue with his program, in order to achieve a total “victory” over Hamas, and Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz assured that his country will coordinate with Egypt before launching an operation in the location.
The war in the Gaza Strip began when Hamas militiamen infiltrated into Israel killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on October 7, and took another 240 hostages as they fled, including twenty citizens. Argentina.
More than 100 of the captives were freed during a ceasefire in November in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Around 130 captives remain in Gaza, although a quarter of them are believed to be dead.
Israel responded to the attack with a military campaign that left at least 28,858 dead and 68,667 injured in Gaza, according to the latest balance sheet from the local Ministry of Health.
Source: Ambito
