BEIRUT, June 5 — A senior Hamas official in Beirut yesterday accused Israel of prolonging truce negotiations and repeated the Palestinian group’s position rejecting any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire.
The statement came as mediator Qatar said it was awaiting a "clear position” from Israel on a proposed Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel’s response to mediators regarding a ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted on May 6 "speaks to opening the door to endless negotiations on everything”.
Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, has been engaged in months of back-and-forth negotiations over details for a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Talks stalled in early May when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, southern Gaza.
In a bid to revive the negotiations, Biden said on Friday that Israel proposed a new three-stage roadmap.
Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut that according to the US president, "the mediators guarantee to continue negotiations indefinitely, until the two parties agree”.
Hamas had told mediators it "cannot agree to a deal that doesn’t that does not secure... a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the achievement of a serious, real prisoner exchange deal”, he said.
That Israel has not agreed to such a deal shows it wants to reclaim the hostages and "then resume its aggression... it doesn’t want a ceasefire,” he said.
"We call on the mediators to obtain a clear position from the Israeli occupation, on its commitment to... a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal,” Hamdan added.
Previous mediation frameworks have failed over Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire, while Israel insists on its right to pursue its objective of destroying the Palestinian group.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday that "we have yet to see a very clear position from the Israeli government towards the principles laid out by President Biden,” adding there was no "concrete approval” from either side. — AFP
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