Hamas official: ‘We will not play this game’ of freeing hostages and getting bombed later

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad tells Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera that the terror group is not interested in releasing hostages just to get pummeled by Israel afterward, and appears to confirm the organization’s interest in reconciling with rival Fatah on Gaza’s postwar future, though it may not be mutual.

Hamad says a permanent ceasefire is the group’s “priority.”

“Israel will take the card of the hostages and after that they will start a new round of mass killing and massacres against our people,” he is quoted saying. “We will not play this game.”

But he says Hamas is ready for a “big compromise” should the war stop.

He also claims that the terror group has reached out to Fatah to “take decisions together” many times, to no avail, blaming Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads Fatah, for the cold shoulder.

“We are open to sit with him, to talk with him and with all Palestinian factions, first as a priority to stop the aggression and after that we can think how we can deal with the situation either in the West Bank or Gaza in order to rearrange the Palestinian home, in order to have one political system, one Palestinian authority,” he says.

A Fatah alliance with the terror group could trigger US sanctions against Ramallah. The US says it wants a revitalized PA to run Gaza, backing Israel’s push to destroy Hamas, while Israel argues that Fatah is already too close to Hamas.

The Hamas official has also addressed reports of the group’s leaders having talks with leaders from the rival Palestinian faction Fatah about what Gaza would like at the end of the war.

Hamad told Al Jazeera that Hamas has called on Fatah and other Palestinian factions “many times” in order to have discussions and

“The problem is still the president of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas], who is still rejecting these calls from Hamas,” he argued. “We are very interested to meet our brothers from Fatah and the Palestinian factions in order to think how we can deal with the current situation in Gaza, either politically or the humanitarian aspect or these American attempts in order to change the situation.”

Since the start of the war, US President Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to see a revitalised Palestinian Authority take charge in Gaza once the conflict is over.

Hamad said that until now, there have been “no good steps” taken from Fatah “in order to come close to Hamas”.

“We are open to sit with him [Abbas], to talk with him and with all Palestinian factions, first as a priority to stop the aggression and after that we can think how we can deal with the situation either in the West Bank or Gaza in order to rearrange the Palestinian home, in order to have one political system, one Palestinian authority,” he added.

“This is I think in our interest but I hope and I expect from our brothers in Fatah to show more positive steps in this direction.”