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Hamas chief accuses Israeli PM of truce talks sabotage
Haniyeh said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to “invent constant justifications for the continuation of aggression, expanding the circle of conflict, and sabotaging efforts made through various mediators and parties”, according to AFP.
Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators met a Hamas delegation in Cairo on Saturday and Sunday in the latest bid to halt the devastating almost seven-month-old war that has triggered worldwide protests.
Negotiators seeking to halt the devastating war have proposed an initial 40-day pause in the fighting and an exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners.
Haniyeh said Hamas had approached the talks with “seriousness and positivity” but questioned “the meaning of an agreement if a cease-fire is not its first result”.
Earlier Netanyahu had rejected Hamas’s demand to end the strikes on the Gaza Strip, which have claimed the lives of more than 34,500 Palestinians there.
Israel was “not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threaten the citizens of Israel”, he said.
Netanyahu said “surrendering” to this would amount to defeat.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for months.
The Qatar-based leader of Hamas’s political office said the United States had “provided cover for this occupation, should be the one to stop it instead of supplying it with weapons of destruction and extermination”.
Haniyeh added that Hamas “remains eager to reach a comprehensive and interconnected agreement in stages, ending the aggression, ensuring withdrawal, and achieving a serious prisoner exchange
deal”.
Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators met a Hamas delegation in Cairo on Saturday before talks resumed Sunday.
After “no developments” in the first round, a senior Hamas official insisted the group would “not agree under any circumstances” to a truce that did not explicitly include a complete end to the war, including Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.