Top Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said in an interview with Al-Araby that the movement had not yet received the proposal’s details.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Saturday that a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is impossible until the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas is destroyed, challenging the truce proposal mentioned by US President Joe Biden, Reuters news agency reported.
Biden had said on Friday that Israel proposed a deal including an initial six-week truce with partial Israeli military withdrawal and the release of some captives while both sides negotiated a “permanent end to hostilities.”
However, Netanyahu’s statement on Saturday dismissed any notion that Israel would agree to a permanent ceasefire before “the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities,” calling it “a non-starter.”
‘Time for a New Stage’ – Biden Calls on Hamas to Accept ‘Israeli Proposal’
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Netanyahu to agree to a prisoner exchange deal, pledging his party’s support even if right-wing factions in the coalition rebelled, suggesting a deal would likely pass in parliament.
“The government of Israel cannot ignore President Biden’s consequential speech. There is a deal on the table and it should be made,” Lapid said in a social media post on Saturday.
‘Positively and in a Constructive Manner’
For its part, Hamas said on Friday it was ready to engage “positively and in a constructive manner”.
Top Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said in an interview with Al-Araby that the movement had not yet received the proposal’s details.
“If the Biden administration is not ready to pressure Netanyahu’s government, the deal will not see the light of day,” Mardawi said, adding that Hamas is “interested in testing the positivity generated by this new proposal and examining its chances of success.”
In any case, Mardawi explained that “no agreement can be reached before the demand for the withdrawal of the occupation army and a ceasefire is met.”
Israel’s Rejection
On May 6, Hamas politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh informed the negotiators that Hamas had announced its acceptance of a ceasefire proposal for the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hamas later said that the necessary measures “to ensure the implementation of the agreement were also reviewed after the movement made its decision out of concern for our people and their supreme interests.”
“It is now on the occupation to seize the moment and agree to the proposal presented,” the statement added.
However, Israel rejected the deal and decided instead to go ahead with the invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 36,379 Palestinians have been killed, and 82,407 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
