Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel had responded negatively to the latest ceasefire proposal. Israel’s attitude emerged after the mediator submitted the proposal.
“On Tuesday (19/3) evening, our brothers, the mediators, informed us of the occupation’s position on the proposal. This is a generally negative response and does not address the demands. In fact, they revoked the consent previously given to us. mediators,” he said at a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday (20/3).
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his government were responsible for the failure to negotiate the release of the hostages. Hamas demands rewards in the form of releasing Palestinian prisoners and stopping fighting in Gaza.
Israel’s invasion since October 7 in the Gaza Strip has killed 31,923 people and injured 74,096 others. Some 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli data, and 132 people remain missing.
This number of victims does not negate Netanyahu’s intention to burn Rafah to the ground. Netanyahu said that preparations were underway for an invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip but that such action would take a long time.
In his statement, Netanyahu said that he would soon approve a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians from the fighting area. That was after he received the green light for the military operational plan in Rafah. (France24/Z-3)
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