Hamas: ‘Priority is to stop Israel’s criminal war’ in Gaza

The political bureau chief of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has said that the priority is stopping Israel’s criminal war against the Palestinian people.   

Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech on Friday that the Palestinians will deal with any initiative that fulfills their demands to stop the war of genocide in Gaza.

Haniyeh confirmed that the movement is open to dealing with "any paper or initiative that provides the foundations of the resistance's position in the ceasefire negotiations."

He stressed that the resistance movement has "the priority of stopping this criminal war against our people, and considering common interests with the Axis of Resistance, whether in Lebanon and other fronts in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and the components of the nation."

In his speech, Haniyeh addressed the latest developments in the political negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He said Hamas has specific demands for a permanent ceasefire, complete withdrawal, reconstruction, prisoner exchange, relief for the Palestinian people and everything related to the siege.

Haniyeh added that these demands are the demands of his people, the resistance, and all the free people of the nation.

He warned that Israel’s negotiating strategy is based on mobilizing regional and international pressure to pressure Hamas to accept the Israeli vision, which affects the foundations of Palestinian demands.

Haniyeh said that the US and its allies are backing the war in Gaza after the Zionist entity suffered an “earthquake” on the seventh of last October.

Haniyeh said that the ongoing Israeli war in the Gaza Strip for the ninth consecutive month is "not only managed by the occupation army but also by the American administration and its allies from Western colonial forces."

Hamas: Blinken part of problem in Gaza ceasefire talks

Osama Hamdan, the senior Hamas representative in Lebanon, said Washington "is complicit with Israel in evading any commitment to a permanent ceasefire proposal."

He revealed that US President Joe Biden personally chaired a meeting of the Israeli war council in a session that lasted seven hours to set goals for eliminating the Islamic resistance and Hamas, and changing the security and political reality in the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh noted that Washington and its allies promptly moved to protect Israel because the attack on October 7 was an earthquake that shook the foundations and principles of the Zionist colonial project.

The Hamas leader said the US and Israel failed in the face of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their resistance.

While Hamas has demanded a lasting ceasefire, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched an offensive in the southern city of Rafah, which is home to around 1.5 million Palestinians who have been displaced due to Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in the besieged territory.

Netanyahu attacked Rafah, despite strong concerns voiced by UN agencies and ally Washington for the safety of the civilians inside the city.

Israel waged its brutal war on besieged Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Tel Aviv, however, has failed to achieve its objectives in Gaza despite killing at least 37,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

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