A senior Israeli official claimed, on Tuesday evening, that Hamas had rejected the current proposal to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip and a deal to exchange prisoners and detainees, according to the official Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation.
The Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation quoted a “senior official,” without naming him, as saying: “Israel received Hamas’ response to the Israeli proposal regarding the deal to release the kidnapped,” and added: “In its response, the movement rejected the broad outlines of the deal presented by US President Joe Biden.”
For its part, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted an unnamed Israeli official: “It appears that this is a rejection...Hamas has changed all the essential things in the proposal, and President Biden spoke about accepting the proposal as it is, signing it and implementing it,” while the movement did not comment. Hamas on that.
On the other hand, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, Izzat Al-Rishq, confirmed that the response of the movement and the Palestinian factions is responsible, serious, and positive, is consistent with the demands of the Palestinians, and opens a wide way to reach an agreement. He stressed that "the Zionist media's incitement to respond to Hamas is an indication of attempts to evade the obligations of the agreement."
Earlier on Tuesday evening, Egypt and Qatar announced that they had received the response of Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian factions to the proposal for a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip and a prisoner exchange with Israel, which was revealed by US President Joe Biden at the end of last May.
The announcement was included in a statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry the day after the UN Security Council adopted a draft American resolution calling on Israel and Hamas to fully implement the deal proposal.
The proposal includes 3 stages of a ceasefire, and ultimately stipulates a permanent cessation of hostilities and the release of Israeli detainees in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Cairo and Doha confirmed, according to the Qatari statement, that “their joint mediation efforts with the United States will continue until an agreement is reached.”
They explained that "the mediators will study the response of Hamas and the factions and coordinate with the concerned parties regarding the next steps" to conclude an agreement to stop fighting and exchange prisoners.
Shortly before the Egyptian statement, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements said, in a joint statement, that “a joint delegation from the two movements delivered the response of the resistance factions this evening (Tuesday) to the Qatari brothers, during a meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister (Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani), He also sent the response to our Egyptian brothers.”
Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a war on Gaza that has left about 122,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing.
While Israel insists on a temporary cessation of fighting, the factions insist on ending the war, the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army, the freedom for the displaced to return to their areas, the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid, and the reconstruction of Gaza, within any agreement to exchange prisoners and detainees.
The Palestinian factions accuse Israel and its ally, the United States, of not wanting to end the war, and of seeking through negotiations to buy time, hoping that Tel Aviv will achieve gains.
There are ongoing negotiations.
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