CAIRO, March 10. /TASS/. Israel has give no guarantees to Hamas concerning the ceasefire, which means that it will resume combat operation as soon as its hostages who are kept in the Gaza Strip are released, senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh said.
"Several hour before my speech, I got in touch with the mediators at the talks and they told me that the enemy has provided no guarantees concerning the ceasefire. It mean that it wants to have its captives released and resume combat operations against our people in the Gaza Strip immediately after this, he said in an address on the beginning of the Holy Month of Ramadan.
According to Haniyeh, Israel "is negotiating the realignment of its forces inside the Gaza Strip with the mediators, but has given no guarantees of the return of the displaced persons to their homes" and obviously wants to fix the enclave’s division into two parts and preserve its presence on the division line between the two parts of Gaza. This is unacceptable for Hamas, which "categorically doesn’t want to strike a deal that will not end the war in the enclave," he stressed.
He reiterated the key five positions Hamas is sticking to during the talks, namely "a total ceasefire, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced persons to their homes without any conditions, the resolution of humanitarian problems in the enclave, and last but not least, the end of the blockade of the enclave." He said that is Hamas receives clear Israeli guarantees on these matters from the mediators, it will be ready to engage in peace talks.
The senior Hamas official rejected allegations that its supporters are using Ramadan to organize riots in Gaza’s support in the West Bank, other Arab countries and among Muslims worldwide. "We understand that the Muslim community has certain commitments to Gaza, Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa mosque both before, during and after Ramadan, but we venerate this holy month and understand what it means for our people and our community," he stressed.
Talks in Cairo
The Al Arabiya television channel said earlier on Sunday that Hamas is still undecided about the resumption of Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to satisfy its demands.
Cairo hosted multilateral consultations on Gaza from March 3 to 7. The talks however yielded no agreements between Hamas and Israel. The Al-Qahera al-Ekhbariya television channel said on March 7 that the Cairo talks would be resumed "within days."
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.
In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. Palestine’s authorities blamed the United States for the resumption of Israel’s combat operations.