Hamas told the U.S.-Qatar-Egypt mediators that they needed to put aside the additional proposals of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to make Israel deal with the original hostage/ceasefire proposal. Hamas’ statement, as reported by Al Arabiya Network last night, declared: “The movement calls on the mediators to present a plan to implement what was agreed upon by the movement on July 2, 2024, based on Biden’s vision and the UN Security Council resolution. The mediators should enforce this on the occupation (Israel) instead of pursuing further rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would provide cover for the occupation’s aggression and grant it more time to continue its genocide against our people.”
Axios reported that Hamas also cited the July 31 assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the Israeli strikes on Gaza as reasons for its decision to no longer entertain the obfuscation and stalling. Axios implies that Hamas will not attend the negotiations unless their call is addressed. They also cited a senior Israeli official involved in the negotiations, who said that Hamas’ statement was “an attempt to get better terms for the deal… If Hamas won’t come to the table, we will continue decimating their forces in Gaza.”
