Hamas rebuffs Blinken’s Gaza truce claim, says US buying time for Israel
Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan rejected claims by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an updated proposal that would signal the end of the war on besieged Gaza, saying, “It raises many ambiguities because it’s not what was presented to us, nor what we agreed on.”
When Blinken says that the Israelis agreed and then the Israelis say that there is an updated proposal, the Americans are subject to Israeli pressure and not vice versa. We believe that it is a maneuver that gives the Israelis more time,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Reuters news agency on Monday.
He said that the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine had already told mediators, “We don’t need new Gaza ceasefire negotiations,” adding, “We need to agree on an implementation mechanism.
It said Hamas had already agreed to US President Joe Biden’s earlier proposal to bring an end to the war on Gaza, and also to the UN Security Council’s decision. It claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rejecting the possibility of adhering to Biden’s plan and was putting up obstacles.
Hamas claims to seek “a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive (Israeli) withdrawal from Gaza”, while Netanyahu is seeking to retain Israeli forces at several strategic locations inside the besieged territory.
Jordan – a Western ally whose relatives of hostages and supporters of the cease-fire deal protested against during Blinken’s visit – is pushing, along with Hamas, for pressure to be put on Netanyahu for an agreement to come about.
The Hamas spokesperson spoke after Blinken said that Israel had agreed to a proposal that would bridge differences holding up a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange in Gaza, calling on Hamas to do the same, without saying whether the concerns cited by the resistance group had been addressed. Netanyahu failed to comment on whether he had agreed to the proposal touted by Blinken.
Hamas indicated that Netanyahu had backed out of the original US proposal, saying that among Netanyahu’s conditions was that “he rejected a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and insisted on continuing the occupation of the Netzarim Junction, which separates the north and south of the Gaza Strip, the Rafah crossing, and the Philadelphia Corridor also known as the Saladin Axis, which is in the south.”
He also set new conditions in the hostage swap file and retracted other terms, which obstructed completion of the deal,” Hamas said in a statement. Hamas said it is losing faith in the US as a mediator, accusing American negotiators of siding with Israel as it makes new demands that Hamas says are a non-starter.
In the meantime, Hamdan said Hamas’ new political chief, negotiator Yahya Sinwar, has never been away from the decision-making circle in the Gaza ceasefire talks. Communication with Sinwar has means and mechanisms in the light of security conditions, and those means are running smoothly,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
Months of on-again, off-again negotiations with U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators have not resulted in an agreement. Mr Blinken will depart Tuesday for Egypt, where ceasefire talks are likely to start again this week, and then go on to Qatar.
