The Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya, who leads its negotiating team, said in a television speech that the group will no longer agree to temporary deals and instead take a stance that Israel is unlikely to accept and may further delay the catastrophic attacks that have re-exploded in recent weeks.
Instead, Hamas said that he was ready to immediately conduct “comprehensive planning negotiations” to release all remaining hostages in his custody in exchange for an end to the Gaza war, the release of Israeli imprisoned Palestinians and the reconstruction of Gaza.
“Netanyahu and his government use part of the agreement as cover for its political agenda, even if the price is sacrificing all prisoners (hostages), which is based on the war of continuing extinction and starvation,” Haiya said.
“We will not be part of the policy through this.”
Egyptian mediators have been working to restore the January ceasefire agreement that stopped fighting in Gaza before it broke down last month, but both Israel and Hamas blamed each other for showing little signs of progress.
“Hamas’ comments show that they are not interested in peace, but permanent violence. The terms of the Trump administration have not changed: free hostages or face hell,” said National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt.
Palestinian and Egyptian sources said the latest round of talks in Cairo on Monday resumed a ceasefire and free hostages for Israeli hostages, but there was no obvious breakthrough.
Israel proposes a 45-day truce in Gaza to allow the release of hostages and potentially start indirect negotiations to end the war. Hamas has rejected one of its conditions-it puts down its arms. In his speech, Haya accused Israel of providing a counterclaim with “impossible conditions”.
Hamas released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on January 19. In March, Israeli troops resumed their ground and air offensives against Gaza, abandoning a ceasefire after Hamas refused to extend a truce without ending the war.
Israeli officials said the offensive would continue until the remaining 59 hostages were released and Gaza was demilitarized. Hamas insists that it will release hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and refuses to demand the layoff of weapons.
Israel strikes
The group lost contact with militants holding Israeli-American hostages after Israeli forces attacked their hideouts on Tuesday. Alexander is a New Jersey native and a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army.
Armed Wing later released a video warning hostage families that they “whose children will return in a black coffin, the bodies ripped apart from fragments of your army.”
Local health authorities said Israeli military strike killed at least 32 Palestinians, including women and children, on the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
One of these strikes killed six people and injured several strikes in an unemployed school in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said the strike targeted Hamas command center.
According to the Israeli Soles, the war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, with 1,200 people killed and 251 people taken hostage to Gaza.
Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive.
