DOHA(Palestine Foundation Information Center) The member of Hamas political bureau and the official in charge of the negotiation file, Khalil al-Hayya, said Hamas is not interested in negotiating Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s new conditions, reiterating that Hamas’s decision is clear namely that it abides by the July 2 proposal.
In an interview with Aljazeera TV on Sunday evening, al-Hayya confirmed that Hamas was not involved in the technical committees that “are said to continue discussions without reaching anything,” reaffirming the Hamas’s position stipulating for “no agreement without the Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors and the Rafah crossing.”
Al-Hayya added, “In May, we agreed on the mediators’ proposal, but the Israeli response was storming Rafah and its crossing. We then accepted the Israeli document presented by the US President Joe Biden and adopted by the Security Council, and we only provided inquiries, but Netanyahu responded by manipulation and procrastination by adding new terms including remaining in the two corridors and refusing to release Palestinian elderly prisoners sentenced to life.
He added that “Netanyahu wants to continue the war” and does not want to pay a real price for the exchange deal, ignoring the file of the Israeli prisoners in Gaza, noting that “Netanyahu turned a blind eye to the flexibility we showed about the number of our prisoners supposed to be released daily according to the deal.”
Al-Hayya noted that the US administration “wants an agreement and is optimistic, but does not want to pressure Israel,” holding it responsible for disrupting the negotiations, which, he said, “is no longer real, but mere procrastination and waste of time.”
