Hamas’s Haniyeh: Israel to blame for collapsed truce talks, no hostage will be released without permanent ceasefire

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh claims that Israel is responsible for the collapse of truce negotiations after talks in Cairo last week reached an impasse.

In a recorded speech, the Qatar-based leader of the terror organization says that Israel “evaded giving clear guarantees regarding the ceasefire, the withdrawal of its forces or the guarantees for the return of the displaced Gazans.”

Claiming that Hamas “showed positivity and responsibility in the course of the negotiations,” Haniyeh says that the terror group will not accept an agreement “that does not end the war or expel the enemy from Gaza.”

Pledging to ensure that Israel will not recover any of the 134 hostages still in Gaza without a permanent ceasefire deal, Haniyeh thanks the “resistance fronts” –Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as other Iran-backed forces — for supporting the terror group’s fight against Israel.

“The Zionist enemy has failed in all its plans in Gaza, and our people are steadfast in their land despite the thousands of martyrs, wounded and missing people,” says Haniyeh, who left Gaza for Qatar in 2017.

Earlier, Egyptian security sources said that the country had been in contact with senior Hamas and Israeli figures in an effort to restart the negotiations for a truce during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.