Hamas official: US resolution at UN based on deal that is ‘not acceptable to us’
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri tells Reuters that while the group welcomes what he calls “Biden’s ideas” to reach a truce in fighting in Gaza, he says a US draft resolution at the UN Security Council is dependent on an Israeli ceasefire proposal that Hamas had already seen and rejected.
“The [US] document… has no mention of ending the aggression or the withdrawal,” he says. “The Israeli documents speak of open-ended negotiation with no deadline, and it speaks of a stage during which the occupation regains its hostages and resumes the war. We had told the mediators that such a paper wasn’t acceptable to us.”
But Abu Zuhri says Hamas is committed to its May 5 proposal, under which the terror group would retain control of the Strip and release very few hostages in exchange for hundreds of imprisoned terrorists — a plan swiftly rejected by Israel.