Nasser Kanani, spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, hailed Hamas’s response to the terms of the Gaza ceasefire as “the political intelligence of the resistance”.
He claimed that the latest moves were a victory, showing the “field strength” of the Palestinian terror group, designated by countries including the UK, after a phone call with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Despite Hamas’s agreement to the ceasefire terms set forth by the mediators, Egypt and Qatar, along with the US, the Israeli government said the terms did not meet its demands, leading to ongoing Israeli military actions in Rafah, south Gaza, where the remaining four battalions of Hamas are based, along with remnants of other disbanded battalions. Rafah has also become a shelter for over a million displaced Palestinians amid the conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed the Hamas proposal was inadequate from Israel’s perspective but confirmed that Israel would send a delegation to continue negotiations.
From the outset, Israel’s war aims have been to rescue the remaining 133 hostages held in Gaza, of over 250 taken captive on October 7. The Prime Minister has also made it clear that there will be no withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas is dismantled in its entirety, to ensure that the atrocities of October 7, when 1,200 mostly civilians were murdered, can never happen again. Over 100,000 Israelis were displaced after the day now known as the Black Sabbath, the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Hamas is demanding the total withdrawal of troops in addition to the release of thousands of prisoners in Israeli prisons, most incarcerated on terror charges, in addition to the unconditional return of Gazans to the north of the strip without security checks, which Israel will not accept.
