Beirut, Lebanon – A senior Hamas official in Beirut on Tuesday 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 captives.
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 captive 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.
Biden, in an interview with Time magazine published Tuesday, suggested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might be dragging out the Gaza war for political gain.