Gaza:
A top Hamas official accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday of making statements aimed at torpedoing prospects for a ceasefire in the nearly seven-month war in Gaza.
Hossam Badran told AFP that Hamas was conducting internal dialogues within its leadership and with allied fighting groups before negotiators return to Cairo to continue ceasefire negotiations.
But he warned that Netanyahu's repeated statements urging troops to be sent to the region's far southern city of Rafah were aimed at “thwarting any possibility of reaching an agreement.”
“Netanyahu was the obstructionist in all previous rounds of dialogue and previous negotiations, and it is clear that he still is,” he said in a telephone interview.
“He is not interested in reaching an agreement and that is why he is saying words in the media to thwart these current efforts.”
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have proposed a deal that would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange Israeli hostages for possibly thousands of Palestinian prisoners, according to details previously released by Britain.
The outcome of the indirect negotiations has remained highly uncertain, with back and forth over the number of hostages that could be released, and deep disagreements over the scope of any agreement.
Badran reiterated that Hamas' goal remains a lasting ceasefire and “a full and comprehensive withdrawal of the occupying forces from the Gaza Strip.”
That goal is at odds with the position of Netanyahu, who has vowed that the army will continue to fight Hamas, including in Rafah, where some 1.5 million civilians are sheltering in cramped conditions.
But after months of stop-start negotiations, the head of Hamas's Qatar-based political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said Thursday that the group would “soon” send a delegation back to Egypt with the aim of reaching a deal that “meets the demands of our people achieved”. .
Haniyeh further said that Hamas was studying Israel's latest proposal in a “positive spirit.”
Any deal reached would be the first since a weeklong ceasefire in November during which 80 Israeli hostages were swapped for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel estimates there are 129 hostages remaining in Gaza. The Israeli army says 35 of them are dead.
The Hamas attack on southern Israel that started the war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
More than 34,600 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas, according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-held territory.
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