Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad has revealed in an interview that the militant group’s “priority” amid the ongoing negotiations for the release of captives is a stop to the war.
“Our vision is very clear: We want to stop the aggression,” he said.
“What is going on in the ground is a big catastrophe,” Hamad added, making reference to the “mass destruction and mass killing” caused by the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The member of Hamas’s political bureau disclosed that “some people” are looking for brief pauses in fighting of a few days or weeks but added that that was not in Hamas’s and Palestinians’ interest.
“Israel will take the card of the hostages and after that they will start a new round of mass killing and massacres against our people,” he said.
“We will not play this game,” he asserted.
Hamad added that once the war stopped, Hamas was “ready to negotiate with all” and reach a “big compromise” for the Palestinian prisoners and the captives in Gaza.
The Hamas official has also addressed reports of the group’s leaders having talks with leaders from the rival Palestinian faction Fatah about what Gaza would like at the end of the war.
Hamad disclosed that Hamas has called on Fatah and other Palestinian factions “many times” in order to have discussions and “take decisions together.”
However, he stated that “the problem is still the president of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas], who is still rejecting these calls from Hamas.”
“We are very interested to meet our brothers from Fatah and the Palestinian factions in order to think how we can deal with the current situation in Gaza, either politically or the humanitarian aspect or these American attempts in order to change the situation.”
Ghazi Hamad
Since the start of the war, US President Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to see a revitalised Palestinian Authority take charge in Gaza once the conflict is over.
Hamad said that until now, there have been “no good steps” taken from Fatah “in order to come close to Hamas.”
“We are open to sit with him [Abbas], to talk with him and with all Palestinian factions, first as a priority to stop the aggression and after that we can think how we can deal with the situation either in the West Bank or Gaza in order to rearrange the Palestinian home, in order to have one political system, one Palestinian authority.”
Ghazi Hamad
“This is I think in our interest but I hope and I expect from our brothers in Fatah to show more positive steps in this direction.”
Israel To Persist In Its Offensive Against Gaza
In comments after Hamas official Ghazi Hamad disclosed the group’s “priority” of stopping the war, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We will continue the war until the end.”
The Israeli Prime Minister said in a video statement that “those who think we will stop are not connected to reality.”
He reiterated Israel’s war goals, “the elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the removal of the threat from Gaza.”
“We’re raining fire on Hamas, hell fire. All Hamas terrorists, from first to last face death. They have two options only: surrender or die.”
Benjamin Netanyahu
In a post on X, Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir said “this is not the time” for truces in Gaza, but rather for military “decisiveness”.
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