JERUSALEM: A senior Hamas official insisted late Saturday that it would “not agree under any circumstances” to a truce in Gaza that did not explicitly guarantee end to the war.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “personally hindering” efforts to reach a truce deal due to “personal interests”.
“Hamas will not agree under any circumstances to an agreement that does not explicitly include a cessation of the war on Gaza,” the official said adding “There will be no agreement without a complete cessation of the war and the withdrawal of the occupation from the entire Gaza Strip.”
A senior Israeli official said on Saturday that Hamas’s failure to drop its demand for an end to the war “destroys the possibility of an agreement”.
The comments came after Hamas negotiators returned to Egypt on Saturday to respond to a proposed pause in the nearly seven-month war.
However, an Israeli official said the country would only send a delegation to Cairo if it saw “positive movement” in the hostage deal, which did not appear to be true.
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States were waiting for Hamas to respond to a proposal to halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, according to details released by Britain.
Despite months of back-and-forth diplomacy between the warring parties, mediators have failed to broker a new truce like the week-long truce last November that saw 105 hostages, including Israelis, released in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.
A Hamas official said the talks had ended for the day after “no developments”.
