9/5/2024–|Last updated: 5/9/202403:55 AM (Mecca time)
A prominent leader in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Thursday that Israel is not serious about reaching an agreement, and is using the negotiations as a cover to invade the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
A member of the Hamas political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to create pretexts to evade the negotiations, and blames Hamas and the mediators.
In statements published on the Telegram platform, Al-Rishq added that Hamas’s approval of the mediators’ proposal confused Netanyahu and put him in a dilemma, stressing that Hamas is sticking to its position that it informed the mediators of approving their proposal.
Yesterday, Wednesday, negotiations resumed in Cairo aimed at reaching an agreement to exchange prisoners and detainees and to establish a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in the presence of all concerned parties, amid American optimism about the possibility of concluding an agreement.
Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said that the movement sent its delegation to Cairo to confirm its seriousness in negotiating, and that the ball is now in the court of the American administration, which he said must prove its seriousness and credibility in committing the Netanyahu government to the agreement proposal that Hamas agreed to.
Last Monday, Hamas announced its approval of a proposed three-stage agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and an exchange of prisoners and detainees, but an Israeli official said that the proposed agreement was unacceptable to Israel due to the “watering down” of its provisions.