Gaza City : Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the group would not accept the Egyptian proposal for truce without a full-fledged deal to end hostilities.
Ismail Haniyeh, the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, confirmed there was diplomatic movement to end hostilities. In a televised statement on Al-Aqsa TV on Monday, he said the group had been contacted about a ceasefire but he did not specify who had made that contact. Haniyeh said: “Our people were avoiding the war but the Zionist enemy began it, he announced it, he prepared for it, he started to kill the women, children and families, destroy homes. Entire families were eliminated.” “Every drop of blood is dear to us. My heart and all the people are standing beside these families, but this bloodshed pushes us towards being more committed to our rights and to stopping this aggression, to end this situation in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Hamas officials said they will not accept “calm for calm.” The group is demanding an easing of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has ground Gaza’s economy to a standstill and that Israel release dozens of prisoners who were arrested in a recent West Bank crackdown following the abductions of the Israeli youths. With the death toll mounting, both sides have come under increasing international pressure to halt the fighting.
However, the group’s armed wing, the Qassam brigades, rejected the proposal, according to its official website. The Qassam Brigades said on Tuesday that it had not been sent details about the “alleged initiative” from any side, “officially or unofficially”. The statement said that excerpts published in the media showed it was an initiative of “bowing and submission”, and added “it was not worth the ink it was written with”. “Our battle with the enemy will continue and will increase in ferocity and intensity,” it added.
Khaled al-Batch, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad armed group, said that the group welcomed “Egypt’s role and efforts to end the Israeli aggression and defend the Palestinian people” but will not accept the ceasefire without conditions. “It is not acceptable to start observing a ceasefire for short term then negotiate the terms. We have experienced this in the past and it has failed,” he said. “What is needed now is to agree on the demands of the Palestinian people, chiefly ending the siege and opening the border corsing, then a zero hour can be agreed upon. Otherwise, history will repeat itself, period.”