Senior official Basem Naim says there is “room for flexibility”, but Hamas wants a guarantee of a complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
A senior official from the Palestinian group Hamas dampened hopes of an immediate ceasefire deal with Israel, saying there was still a long way to go before an agreement could be reached.
“The gap is still wide. We need to discuss many points with the mediators,” Basem Naim, head of Hamas’s political and international relations, told Tel Aviv Tribune from Istanbul on Wednesday.
It comes after US President Joe Biden said he hoped to secure a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza by next Monday, with negotiations appearing to have gathered pace.
However, Naim said the Biden administration’s optimistic posture was not “related to the reality on the ground” and had more to do with domestic political considerations in a US election year.
“If Americans want to be truly optimistic, they need to end their double standards,” he said.
“They talk about one side stopping the aggression or reaching a ceasefire and avoiding expanding the conflict to the region. But at the same time, they use their veto in the UN Security Council,” Naim said. “They approve $14 billion for Israel, they guarantee Israel more munitions. »
Naim previously told Tel Aviv Tribune on Tuesday evening that Hamas had not yet received a formal truce proposal, but that meditators were working with the Israeli side to cement one.
Although Hamas is willing to show flexibility on some aspects of a potential deal, it will not do so at the expense of its “main strategic objectives,” Naim said.
He said the Palestinian group’s non-negotiable demands include: a final and complete ceasefire, not just a humanitarian pause; the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza; and freedom of movement for Palestinians inside Gaza.
Naim said Hamas was willing to be flexible on the timing and order of its demands, provided that the full ceasefire begins on the first day of the implementation of any agreement.
“Space for flexibility”
Regarding the exchange of prisoners and captives and plans to rebuild Gaza, “there is some room for flexibility,” Naim added.
“Hamas showed great flexibility from the beginning to achieve a ceasefire because we know that every additional day of this massacre means 100 to 150 additional Palestinian civilians killed,” the official said.
“People in northern Gaza are starving. We know exactly what that means. Our families are still there.
Naim said Hamas also seeks guarantors such as Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, the United Nations, the United States and Russia to guarantee and verify that any agreement is respected by Israel.
On Wednesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the group was ready to continue fighting if necessary, even as it showed flexibility in its negotiations with Israel.
Speaking from Beirut, he called on the Iranian-led political and military coalition, known as the “Axis of Resistance,” to increase its support for Gaza through political levers, money and of weapons.
“It is the duty of Arab and Islamic nations to take the lead in ending the famine conspiracy in Gaza,” Haniyeh said, referring to what Palestinians say appears to be a deliberate Israeli policy. aimed at denying them food by preventing humanitarian aid from arriving. in Gaza.
Haniyeh added that Israel is committing the worst atrocities known to humanity, including the extermination and displacement of civilians, and that any flexibility demonstrated in negotiations with Israel must be matched by his group’s willingness to defend the people. Palestinian.
The Hamas leader called on Palestinians to march to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on the first day of Ramadan, likely March 10, to protest Israel’s continued restrictions on Palestinian access to the holy site Muslim. .
“The siege of Al-Aqsa and the siege of Gaza are one and the same,” Haniyeh said.
Since October 7, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed nearly 30,000 people – mostly women and children – and displaced most of the besieged strip’s population. Some 1.5 million people are taking refuge in the town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, as Israel threatens to launch a ground invasion there.