10/9/2024–|Last update: 10/9/202401:50 PM (Makkah Time)
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) denied adding any new demands to reach a prisoner exchange deal and ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and said that the world knows that it was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who added new conditions and demands, not Hamas.
The movement added, through its political bureau member, Izzat al-Rishq, that the administration of US President Joe Biden, which is unable to pressure Netanyahu, believes that blaming Hamas is less costly, in light of the US elections.
White House National Security Council communications official John Kirby accused Hamas of being the main obstacle to reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, and said that Hamas’s change in some of its conditions makes the matter more difficult.
Hamas considered Kirby’s statements to be “a blatant alignment with the Israeli position,” stressing that his accusation that the movement had changed some of its conditions regarding the ceasefire was “baseless.”
In the same context, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed his surprise at one of the parties – without naming it – procrastinating in the ceasefire negotiations.
Borrell added that the EU could exert political and diplomatic pressure on Israel to demand a ceasefire, stressing that the EU is studying a proposal to impose sanctions on two Israeli ministers due to their racist statements.
Hamas warned yesterday, Monday, against considering Netanyahu’s new conditions as a point for negotiation and returning indirect negotiations with Israel to what it described as “square one.”
Al-Rashq – in a statement on his Telegram account – called on mediators to pressure Netanyahu, saying that “if Netanyahu is not pressured and obligated to what was agreed upon, the Israeli prisoners will not see the light.”
He said that everyone knows that Netanyahu and his government are the party “obstructing the agreement,” and stressed that the movement’s demands to “permanently stop the aggression and completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip are clear, and we are committed to them.”
Al-Rashq considered that what the Israeli side and some American sources are promoting about new demands from Hamas is “a lie and an attempt to evade their responsibility for disrupting the negotiations and stopping the aggression against our Palestinian people.”
Netanyahu has accused Hamas of obstructing the achievement of an agreement, and insists on the continued presence of Israeli army forces at the Netzarim Corridor, which divides the Gaza Strip into north and south, as well as the Rafah crossing and the Salah al-Din (Philadelphi) Corridor on the border with Egypt, if a ceasefire agreement is reached, which the movement rejects.
This comes amid the faltering negotiations mediated by Qatar and Egypt with the participation of the United States of America, while the latter is working on a new proposal, although an Israeli official said that Washington fears failure if it presents its new proposal in the current atmosphere.
Since October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, with full American support, leaving about 136,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amidst massive destruction and deadly famine.
In contempt of the international community, Israel continues the war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate halt, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.