“The negotiations were managed by the leadership, and Sinwar was not far from the negotiation process. He was part of its details.”

A Hamas official has said the assassination of the movement’s politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh will not change the course of the negotiations with Israel.

“If assassinating Haniyeh was one of Netanyahu’s goals to change the course of the negotiations, he is delusional,” Osama Hamdan told the Anadolu news agency.

He said the “basis of the negotiations is fixed”, and the men who negotiated under Haniyeh will continue to work” with the new politburo chief, Yahya Sinwar, “who was present in all the details of the negotiations.” Hamas named Sinwar as its new political chief on Tuesday to succeed Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.

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“The negotiations were managed by the leadership, and Sinwar was not far from the negotiation process. He was part of its details,” Hamdan explained.

‘Problem was Israel’

Hamas and Iran have accused Israel of carrying out Haniyeh’s assassination, but Tel Aviv has not confirmed or denied responsibility.

“The negotiation process will continue,” Hamdan stressed, adding that the “problem was not Hamas, but Israel, (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, and the US, which was not sincere in its mediation or in its attempt to push for a ceasefire.”

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter the besieged Gaza Strip.

But the mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.

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Committed to Ceasefire

Hamdan emphasized Hamas will remain committed to working for a ceasefire in Gaza, full Israeli withdrawal, ending the siege, rebuilding the enclave and swapping prisoners.

Sinwar “will continue moving in this direction,” he added.

“Sinwar has a high degree of flexibility in managing public affairs and preserves the rights of the Palestinian people.”

Sinwar is on Israel’s kill list, with Tel Aviv accusing him of masterminding the October 7 resistance operation, which prompted Israel to launch a devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 39,600 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

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Hamas has been flexible in talks to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza, Hamdan said, adding “Netanyahu knows well that his attempts for evading will not work.”

On Monday, the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt and the US held separate talks to discuss their mediation efforts and the importance of reaching a cease-fire in Gaza, reported Anadolu.

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since October 7.

Tel Aviv is currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians in the enclave beginning then.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health,  39,677 Palestinians have been killed, and 91,645 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

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’.

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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.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(Anadolu, PC)