Hamas on ceasefire: Netanyahu buying more time to commit more crimes

A high-ranking official from the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has underlined the need for a complete end to the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, and return of displaced families to their areas in order for a ceasefire to be struck.

Member of Hamas’s political bureau, Husam Badran, in a statement on Tuesday described the demands as “the most prominent red lines that resistance factions will not relinquish.”

He added that the latest remarks by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about new negotiations over Gaza are an attempt to buy more time to kill more Palestinians, sharply criticizing him for telling lies and not seeking any ceasefire deal.

Badran noted that Hamas had not received any official notification from mediators regarding the resumption of ceasefire negotiations.

“[Israel] is a rogue entity that violates international resolutions. Its attempt to justify massacres in Rafah will fail and will not deceive the world,” the senior Hamas official said.

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Netanyahu said Sunday he "strongly opposes" ending the war in Gaza, amid calls for a truce deal.

Before a meeting of his war cabinet, Netanyahu's office said Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya "Sinwar continues to demand the end of the war, the withdrawal of the IDF (Israeli military) from the Gaza Strip and leaving Hamas in place,” accusing the resistance movement of seeking to carry out the attacks against Israel.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu strongly opposes this," a statement said.

Netanyahu has long rejected Hamas's demands in negotiations for a permanent end to the Gaza war.

Israel's three-week Rafah offensive sparked renewed outrage after an airstrike on Sunday set ablaze a tent camp in the west of the city.

Some 50 people, including many children, were killed in Israel’s attack on the tent camp in Rafah, prompting global condemnations and calls for the implementation of a World Court order to halt Israel's assault on Gaza.

The attack came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its US-backed aggression on Gaza that has killed more than 36,000 people since it started in October last year.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories.

Concomitantly with the war, the regime has been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal territory, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.

The Israeli war has killed at least 36,096 people, most of them women, children, and adolescents. Another 81,136 Palestinians have sustained injuries as well.

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