The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said on Sunday it would not take part in new talks on a ceasefire in Gaza this week unless mediators presented a plan based on previous talks.
“The movement is asking the mediator to present a plan for implementing what the movement agreed to on July 2, 2024. [President] We support Biden’s vision and the UN Security Council resolutions,” Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram.
The terrorist group, which is still holding dozens of hostages, including Americans, has shown “flexibility” throughout the negotiating process, but said Israeli actions, including the assassination of its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran last month, showed it was not serious about reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Hamas has asked the mediators to submit a plan for implementing last month’s agreement. (REUTERS/Ibrahim Abu Mustafa/File)
Hamas called on the mediators, including the United States, Egypt and Qatar, to submit a plan to implement what was agreed upon last month “instead of further negotiations and new proposals that would justify the occupation forces’ aggression.”
President Biden told CBS News he believes it’s “still possible” for the two sides to reach a deal that would include the release of the 115 hostages.
“The plan that I put together has been endorsed by the G7, the U.N. Security Council and others, and it remains workable,” Biden said. said network In an interview published Sunday, he said: “And I’m literally working every day with my whole team to try not to escalate into a regional war, but it could easily become that.”
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Meanwhile, a senior Israeli official involved in the negotiations derided Hamas’ announcement as a “tactical move to try to secure better terms in preparation for a possible attack by Iran and Hezbollah.”
“If Hamas does not come to the negotiating table, we will continue to crush Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip,” the official told Israeli news outlet Walla.
The statement came after the Israeli army ordered further evacuations in southern Gaza and a day after an airstrike on a converted school shelter in northern Gaza killed at least 80 Palestinians, local Hamas-backed health officials said.
Smoke rises after Israeli forces launch airstrikes in the Al-Mughraka neighborhood of the Gaza Strip on April 14, 2024. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The latest evacuation orders apply to parts of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, including part of a humanitarian area where the Israeli military said rockets were fired, and Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of hiding out among civilians and launching attacks from residential areas.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, attacking farming villages and military bases near the border, killing about 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping about 250. Israeli officials believe about a third of the remaining hostages are likely dead.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, says the Palestinian death toll from the war is approaching 40,000.
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The months-long conflict has threatened to spark a regional war as Israel engages in a firefight with Iran and its militant allies in the region.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
