GAZA, (PIC)
Hamas said the threats made by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff regarding the Movement’s rejection of the ceasefire proposal announced by the United States to exchange prisoners and stop the war in Gaza “complicates matters and do not provide a basis for achieving the tranquility everyone seeks in the region.”
“What happened with the Houthis yesterday ought to inform us as to where we stand with regard to terrorist actions,” Witkoff said, referring to the massive US-led attack on in Yemen on Saturday. “I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible than they have been,” the US envoy said in statements quoted by CNN on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement on Monday, “Talking about new proposals does not serve the process of implementing the (ceasefire) agreement, and these threats further complicate matters, and do not provide a suitable ground for completing the implementation of the agreement and achieving the calm that everyone seeks in the region.”
He stressed in statements to The New Arabi TV that Hamas is committed to the agreement announced on January 19, 2025, which was signed by all parties, including the United States and its envoys to the region, including Witkoff, as it stipulated three stages, “and what is clearly and simply required is a commitment to implement what came in the agreement and move to the second stage with its entitlements.”
Qassem added that “the negotiations stalled due to the position of the right-wing Israeli government, which is afraid to go to the second phase,” noting that the main concern of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the disintegration of the government coalition and the withdrawal of right-wing parties from it. “The real path or the only positive path to complete ceasefire is to force this government to implement what was agreed upon.”
According to the Hamas spokesman, contacts are still ongoing, as they began in the Qatari capital Doha, then moved to the Egyptian capital Cairo, after the visit of the Movement’s delegation to it, while it is expected that these meetings will continue in the coming days.
Qassem pointed out that the goal of the upcoming meetings and discussions with the Egyptian side is to “work to find an appropriate path to implement the second phase of the agreement, not to jump over any entitlements contained in the agreement,” stressing that “the path to release all prisoners, living and dead, is only (feasible) by committing the Israeli occupation government to what came in the agreement that was signed and entered into force on January 19.”
On Thursday, Hamas announced that it had agreed to a proposal by mediators to release an Israeli-American soldier and four bodies of dual nationals, in order to resume negotiations for the second phase of the agreement that Israel violated. According to Egyptian sources, what Hamas presented was acceptable to the US administration, before a sudden shift a few hours after Washington’s approval through mediators.
