Top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said on Monday that work is still underway to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Any ceasefire agreement “must guarantee all what we are asking for,” Hamdan, a member of the Palestinian group’s politburo, told the Anadolu news agency.
Hamdan highlighted the Palestinian Resistance main demands. “We insist on reaching a complete ceasefire, call for a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, and lifting the siege on Gaza,” he said, adding,
“However, the Israeli army wants to continue its military attacks in Gaza, and continue its siege.”
The ongoing mediation involves two Arab countries, Egypt and Qatar, along with the United States, which still refuses to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
In earlier statements, Hamdan and other Hamas officials have warned of deliberate misinformation about the movement’s position on the ceasefire, asserting that it is yet to declare a final position.
Regarding claims that Hamas asked for the release of major commanders of the group, Hamdan said “we have declared from day number one that we want the release of all the Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.”
Asked whether the exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah will stop if the deal is reached in Gaza, Hamdan told Anadulu that “Israel is worried more than anyone else about the continuity of the fight in the northern part of Palestine and the southern part of Lebanon.”
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“The Israelis understand that they did not succeed in Gaza, and failed to face the Resistance, which will continue until the end of occupation,” he added.
Last week, head of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh confirmed receiving a proposal following a meeting in Paris, headed by the US and involving Qatar, Egypt and Israel.
Israel is being accused of committing genocide in Gaza. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 27,365 Palestinians have been killed, and 66,663 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 8,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
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The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all of 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.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
