Hamas threatened on Saturday evening to walk away from truce talks if additional aid was not quickly delivered to the Gaza Strip, including in the north of the territory threatened by famine. “Negotiations cannot take place as long as hunger consumes the Palestinian people. Hamas intends to suspend negotiations until aid is brought to northern Gaza,” said a “leader” of Hamas in a statement broadcast by al-Aqsa, the movement’s channel.
Hamas insists on ‘total ceasefire’
Questioned by AFP, a senior Hamas official, requesting anonymity, confirmed “that the Egyptian and Qatari mediators had been informed of Hamas’s intention to suspend negotiations until aid was provided in the Gaza Strip, including the north. Complex negotiations regarding a truce in the fighting, the release of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners imprisoned by Israel, are continuing through the mediating countries, Egypt, Qatar and the United States.
Hamas insists, among other things, on a “total ceasefire” and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose war in Gaza aims to “annihilate” the Islamist movement, refuses at this stage Hamas’s demands and speaks of a pause in the fighting rather than an end to hostilities. These statements come as the Israeli army prepares to launch an offensive on the town of Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, where 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded, the vast majority of people displaced by the fighting, a scenario feared by the UN.
They also come at a time when Gaza is getting a little closer every day to “starvation”, particularly in the north of the territory, according to the UN World Food Program (WFP). The war was sparked by the unprecedented attack on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a count of AFP based on official Israeli data.
The Israeli offensive in response left 28,858 dead in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them civilians, according to a new report from Hamas on Saturday. A truce agreement in November allowed the release of 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis, against 240 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated by Israel. According to Israel, 130 hostages are still held in Gaza, 30 of whom are believed to have died, out of around 250 people kidnapped on October 7.