Hamas won’t settle for a hostages-for-prisoners swap cope with Tel Aviv until Israel’s assaults on Gaza finish, the performing chief of the Palestinian resistance group Khalil al-Hayya mentioned Wednesday.
“Without an end to the war, there can be no prisoner swap,” Hayya mentioned in a televised interview with the group’s Al-Aqsa tv channel, reiterating the group’s place on tips on how to carry the warfare to an finish.
“If the aggression is not ended, why would the resistance and in particular Hamas, return the prisoners (hostages)?” he mentioned. “How would a sane or an insane person lose a strong card he owns while the war is continuing?”
Hayya, who led the group’s negotiating workforce in talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, blamed the shortage of progress on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s accused of finishing up a genocide in Gaza and who in flip holds the group chargeable for the stalled talks.
“There are contacts underway with some countries and mediators to revive this file (negotiation). We are ready to continue with those efforts but it is more important to see a real will on the side of the occupation to end the aggression,” mentioned Hayya.
“The reality proves that Netanyahu is the one who undermines it (negotiations),” he added.
Speaking throughout a go to to Gaza on Tuesday, Netanyahu mentioned that Hamas wouldn’t rule the Palestinian enclave after the warfare had ended and that Israel had destroyed the group’s navy capabilities.
Netanyahu additionally mentioned Israel had not given up attempting to find the 101 remaining hostages believed to be nonetheless within the enclave, and he supplied a $5 million reward for the return of every one.
Hamas desires a deal that ends the warfare and sees the discharge of Israeli and overseas hostages held captive in Gaza in addition to Palestinians jailed by Israel, whereas Netanyahu vowed the warfare can solely finish as soon as Hamas is eradicated.
Qatar, a key cease-fire mediator alongside Egypt, mentioned it had knowledgeable Hamas and Israel that it will stall its mediation efforts until the 2 fighters confirmed “willingness and seriousness” to achieve a deal.
On Nov. 19, Qatari overseas ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari mentioned the political workplace of Hamas in Doha had not been completely closed.
Earlier this month Reuters quoted a U.S. official saying Washington had requested Qatar to expel the group and that Doha had handed this message on to Hamas.
Al-Ansari mentioned the Hamas workplace had been created to facilitate mediation efforts to finish the Gaza warfare.
Hayya mentioned Hamas had welcomed an Egyptian proposal for Hamas to type an administrative committee with the rival Fatah motion of President Mahmoud Abbas to run the Gaza Strip, a transfer that addresses the excellent query of how the enclave could be run when the combating stops.
But an settlement has but to be finalized, Hayya mentioned. Israel rejects any Hamas position in governing Gaza after the warfare.
Israel killed practically 44,000 individuals, largely ladies and kids, and wounded 103,898, based on the Gaza well being ministry, and turning the enclave right into a wasteland of rubble with thousands and thousands determined for meals, gas, water, and sanitation.
Source: www.dailysabah.com