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Hamas: Netanyahu keeps stalling Gaza truce deal with new terms

Monday, 29 July 2024 5:45 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 29 July 2024 6:26 PM ]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo by Reuters)

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for preventing a ceasefire in Gaza by adding new conditions and demands to a US truce proposal, following the latest round of talks in Rome conducted through mediators.

“We in the Hamas movement have listened to the mediators regarding what transpired recently in the Rome meeting, concerning the ceasefire negotiations and prisoner exchange,” the group said in a statement on Monday.

“It is clear from what the mediators conveyed that Netanyahu has returned to his strategy of procrastination, stalling, and evading reaching an agreement by setting new conditions and demands,” it added.

The new terms, Hamas said, represent “a retreat” from an earlier draft communicated by mediators.

The statement came after Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators met with Israeli negotiators in Rome on Sunday in the latest push for a truce.

Israel and Hamas have been engaged in indirect talks since January to reach a deal that ends the war on Gaza and swaps Israeli captives with Palestinian prisoners.

The two sides have been back and forth over a three-phased proposed outline for the agreement presented by mediators.

Hamas says seeks ‘comprehensive truce' as Israel hell-bent on war, blockade

Hamas says it would only settle for a deal encompassing all of the movement’s demands of the Israeli regime that has brought Gaza under a genocidal war.

The process involves a six-week pause in fighting, in which Hamas will release some Israeli captives it has held since October 7.

In exchange, Israel is expected to release several Palestinian prisoners, withdraw its troops from certain regions of the Gaza Strip and allow Palestinians to travel from the south of the territory to the north.

During the second phase, there would be a direct announcement of a permanent cessation of Israeli military operations before the remaining Israeli captives are exchanged for more Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas has accepted a UN Security Council resolution passed last month which said: "If the negotiations take longer than six weeks for phase one, the ceasefire will continue as long as negotiations continue."

Israel's war on Gaza, now nearing its tenth month, has destroyed large swaths of the besieged territory.

Israel has killed more than 39,300 people, the great majority of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023.

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