Mohamad Majed and Mustafa Haboush
11 March 2024•Update: 11 March 2024
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The head of Hamas' political bureau said Sunday that the group “has shown positivity and responsibility” during indirect negotiations with Israel, insisting on a comprehensive agreement with international guarantees to oblige Israel to abide by it.
“We do not want to reach an agreement that does not end the war on the Gaza Strip, or does not let displaced people return to their homes, or does not ensure the departure of the Zionist enemy from the Gaza Strip,” Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech.
Haniyeh said Israel bears “responsibility for not reaching an agreement because it does not want to commit to the basic principles of the agreement.”
“Nevertheless, we are open to continuing negotiations and open to any formula that achieves these principles and ends this aggression,” he emphasized.
Haniyeh pointed out that Israel “talks to mediators about redeployment and repositioning of the occupying army forces inside the Gaza Strip,” indicating that it “has not made any commitment so far to the return of the displaced to their places of residence.”
He reiterated five principles for reaching a comprehensive agreement to halt the war, including “a comprehensive cease-fire, the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from all lands in the Gaza Strip, the complete return of the displaced without conditions, addressing humanitarian issues including relief, shelter and reconstruction, ending the siege, and then reaching a deal whereby prisoners are exchanged.”
He also accused Israel of “evading giving clear guarantees and commitments to stop the war on the Gaza Strip.”
Haniyeh also warned that “the enemy is waging a psychological war against our people and there are attempts to sow discord and create chaos, but all of this will fail.”
He noted that “the occupation has also failed to displace our people and divide the Gaza Strip despite all the massacres and ethnic cleansing and genocide it practiced against our Palestinian people.”
Haniyeh also affirmed that Hamas “is monitoring the arrangements of the Palestinian internal situation and is more concerned than ever with the unity of the Palestinian people and rebuilding its political and leadership components on correct and sound foundations.”
He called on Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the diaspora “to support the battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood to protect Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque against any conspiracies targeting our holiest places, Islamic and Christian,” urging them to invest in the month of Ramadan, which begins Monday.
He also extended greetings to the resistance in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq and to the Arab and Islamic masses who have come out in support of Gaza.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas in which some 1,200 people were killed.
Nearly 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 72,500 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala
