GAZA CITY: Palestinian resistance group Hamas announced on Friday that Israel does not take Gaza cease-fire negotiations seriously. Speaking to the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV channel, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan stated that Israel fails to present genuine proposals and “is definitively not serious in the (cease-fire) negotiations.”
According to Anadolu Agency, Hamdan emphasized that Hamas is ready to proceed with any proposal that meets their people’s demands, ends their suffering, and completely halts Israeli aggression, not just temporarily. Despite a yearlong conflict in the enclave, Hamdan asserted that Israel has been unable to break Palestinian resistance. Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Israel has killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza and rendered the area uninhabitable.
Efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar for a permanent cease-fire have so far been unsuccessful, primarily due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to stop the war. The resistance group has maintained
that it will not agree to any truce proposal that does not include a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a total cessation of hostilities.
An Israeli delegation recently returned from Doha, with the prime minister’s office indicating that discussions between mediators and Hamas will continue in the coming days. The ongoing talks aim to “evaluate the feasibility of talks and the continued effort to advance a deal.”