Hamas denies it has withdrawn from hostage-truce talks after latest Israeli attacks
Statement from Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of the terror group’s political office, accuses Netanyahu of trying to derail efforts to achieve a deal
The Hamas terror group has not withdrawn from ceasefire talks after this weekend’s deadly Israeli attacks in Gaza, one of the group’s senior officials insisted on Sunday.
The statement from Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of the political office of Hamas, also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to derail efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire deal.
El-Reshiq’s announcement came hours after an unnamed senior Hamas official told AFP Sunday that the Palestinian terror group has withdrawn from talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza war because of Israeli “massacres” and Israel’s attitude in negotiations, while also leaving the door open for a return to mediation.
Another Hamas official insisted that the group’s military leader Mohammed Deif was “fine” and working, despite Israel’s huge bomb attack on a southern Gaza camp Saturday that it said targeted the wanted Hamas commander.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said the attack left 92 dead, without differentiating in its reported toll between fighters and civilians. The IDF said the building struck was not in a tent camp for displaced Palestinians, but rather in a fenced-off Hamas compound within a civilian environment. Several dozen more Hamas operatives were also in the area of the site when it was targeted, including Deif, his deputy Rafa’a Salameh, and Salameh’s guards, military sources said.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh told international mediators Qatar and Egypt that talks would end on a ceasefire plan first outlined by US President Joe Biden in May, according to the unnamed senior official.
The first phase of the deal would see a six-week ceasefire and the exchange of some of the hostages abducted in Hamas’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Haniyeh said Hamas would “halt negotiations due to the occupation’s (Israel) lack of seriousness, continued policy of procrastination and obstruction, and the ongoing massacres against unarmed civilians,” according to the official.
“Hamas has shown great flexibility to reach an agreement and end the aggression and is ready to resume negotiations when the occupation government demonstrates seriousness in reaching a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange deal,” the official cited Haniyeh as saying.
The Kan public broadcaster cited a diplomat familiar with the talks as saying that further negotiations are still planned for this week in Doha, Qatar, with the participation of Mossad chief David Barnea. The meetings were scheduled before the attempt on Deif, the report noted.
The diplomat conceded that strikes like the one on Deif “tend to lead to interruptions and delays in conversations, or changes in demands.”
Hamas, without confirming that Deif was at the camp, said he was alive and working.
“Commander Mohammed Deif is well and directly overseeing Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades and resistance operations,” a Hamas official told AFP, referring to the group’s armed wing.
The developments came after the Reuters news agency earlier cited two Egyptian officials as saying that talks were put on hold. Those officials alleged that Israel lacked a genuine intent to reach an agreement. According to the sources, the Israeli delegation at talks would give approvals to several conditions under discussion, but then come back with amendments or introduce new conditions that risked sinking the negotiations.
Haniyeh said in a statement late Saturday that he had called the mediators and other countries to urge them to put pressure on Israel to halt the attacks.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim also panned the strike on Deif, telling Al Jazeera Saturday that “every time that we get close to an agreement Netanyahu carries out a new crime,” and warned that Hamas could back out of talks.
Israel said Deif, who it considers one of the masterminds of the October 7 attacks, and Salameh were the target of the strikes near the Al-Mawasi camp in southern Gaza where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians from other districts have gathered.
Israel has not yet confirmed that Deif is dead.
Ramped-up hostage deal talks in Doha and Cairo took place throughout much of last week. There was renewed optimism about the talks after Hamas dropped its demand that the framework include an upfront commitment from Israel to end the war during the first of three phases, though the terror group is still demanding a commitment to that effect from mediators.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have hardened his negotiating stance in light of reported intelligence showing Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement due to its weakening military position.
The current round of talks is based on an Israeli proposal that aims to free the hostages abducted by Hamas during its massive assault on Israel alongside a ceasefire in the war sparked by the attack. The talks stalled in June, but a recent reworking of the agreement’s language opened the door for renewed negotiations.
At rallies in Israel on Saturday in support of a hostage deal, participants — including some former hostages — urged the prime minister to push ahead with the the current framework while accusing him of sabotaging progress.
Netanyahu at a press conference insisted that his approach of military pressure and hardball negotiating is the best strategy to secure freedom for all the hostages held by Hamas.
The war in Gaza erupted with the terror group’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, topple its Gaza regime, and free the hostages.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — including the remains of 42 whose deaths the IDF has confirmed — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.
Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
One more person has been listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas has also been holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
