Ceasefire talks contingent on Israeli approval: Hamas Offic.-Exclusive
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A senior Hamas official tells Al Mayadeen that the group did not want to start negotiations from square one after it agreed to the previous ceasefire and prisoner exchange document on May 6.
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A student protester waves a Palestinian flag above Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Hamas refuses to start from square one, a senior official in the movement told Al Mayadeen, in reference to the talks over a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip, as the Resistance group had already approved of the previous document.
On Friday, Biden presented what he described as a three-phase Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of Israeli captives held by the Palestinian Resistance.
The official told Al Mayadeen that Hamas did not accept to receive what was recently offered by the mediators, explaining that the movement did not want to start from square one after it agreed to the previous ceasefire and prisoner exchange document on May 6.
The source expressed Hamas' surprise at the US administration's ongoing request, through mediators, for the movement's approval of the recent ceasefire proposal, without prior Israeli approval.
According to the senior official, Hamas' basic condition now for resuming negotiations is to obtain official, declared, and explicit Israeli approval of the previous document.
That is why the Resistance movement will not discuss any paper unless "Israel" approves of it first, the source told Al Mayadeen.
Earlier on Monday, the White House said Biden told the emir of mediator Qatar that he saw Hamas as "the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire" in Gaza and urged him to press the Palestinian Resistance group to accept it.
But it is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office that stressed that any suggestion of "Israel" agreeing to a permanent ceasefire before "the destruction of Hamas' military and governing capabilities" was "a non-starter," and it is Netanyahu's extremist ministers who are threatening to leave the government if the premier accepts the deal.
Hamas previously said it "views positively" the ceasefire proposal laid out by the US president and confirmed its readiness to "deal positively and in a constructive manner" with any proposal that is based on a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip.
Read more: Netanyahu statements ruining prospect of ceasefire: Israeli officials
