INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Hamas wants a comprehensive deal to end the war in Gaza and swap all Israeli hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel, a senior official
from the Palestinian militant group said, rejecting Israel’s offer of an interim truce.
In a televised speech, Khalil Al-Hayya, the
group’s Gaza chief who leads its negotiating team, said the group would no longer agree to interim deals, adopting a position that Israel
is unlikely to accept and potentially further delaying an end to the devastating attacks that restarted in recent weeks, Reuters
reported.
Instead, Hayya said Hamas was ready to immediately engage in “comprehensive package negotiations” to release all remaining
hostages in its custody in return for an end to the Gaza war, the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel, and the reconstruction of
Gaza.
“Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda, which is based on continuing the war of
extermination and starvation, even if the price is sacrificing all his prisoners (hostages),” said Hayya, referring to Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We will not be part of passing this policy.”
Egyptian mediators have been working to revive the January
ceasefire agreement that halted fighting in Gaza before it broke down last month, but there has been little sign of progress with both
Israel and Hamas blaming each other.
“Hamas’s comments demonstrate they are not interested in peace but perpetual violence
The terms made by the Trump Administration have not changed: release the hostages or face hell,” said National Security Council
spokesperson James Hewitt.
The latest round of talks on Monday in Cairo to restore the ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no
apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.
Israel had proposed a 45-day truce in Gaza to allow hostage releases and
potentially begin indirect talks to end the war
Hamas has already rejected one of its conditions – that it lay down its arms
In his speech, Hayya accused Israel of offering a counterproposal with “impossible conditions.”
Hamas released 38 hostages under a
ceasefire that began on January 19
In March, Israel’s military resumed its ground and aerial offensive on Gaza, abandoning the ceasefire after Hamas rejected proposals to
extend the truce without ending the war.
Israeli officials say that the offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed
and Gaza is demilitarized
Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.
ISRAELI STRIKES
On
Tuesday, the armed wing of Hamas armed said the group had lost contact with militants holding Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander after
the Israeli army attacked their hideout
Alexander is a New Jersey native and a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army.
The armed wing later released a video warning hostages’
families that their “children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart from shrapnel from your army.”
Israeli military
strikes killed at least 32 Palestinians, including women and children, across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said.
One
of those strikes killed six people and wounded several others at a UN-run school in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip
The Israeli military said the strike targeted a Hamas command center.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern
Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 51,000
Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.
The post Hamas says it is ready to release
all remaining hostages for an end to Gaza war first appeared on TINS News.
