The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has not received any new ceasefire proposal, but nevertheless remains committed to the earlier proposal received early last month. This was confirmed on Monday by Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran.
“We did not receive any new papers, and the proposal the mediators presented to us – which the US followed all the details of — on 6 May, and which Hamas and the resistance factions approved, is the stance we have adopted,” Badran explained. US President Joe Biden’s recent speech regarding negotiations to end the war on Gaza, he added, “indicates that [Israel] and its main supporters are confused because they counted on the defeat of the Palestinian people and the defeat of their resistance in the Gaza Strip in the past months, and this has not happened.”
Badran suggested that Biden’s speech basically acknowledged, in one way or another, that the Israeli occupation forces are unable to achieve any of their political and military goals that have been announced over the past few months. “If the US administration was serious about revising its position and actually intervening to stop the war, it should have followed up on the previous proposal, the details of which it knew.”
The Hamas official stressed that Washington has the means and ability to put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government. “That is the only party which needs pressure, but it is refusing to reach any agreement.”
When Netanyahu insists that he will not stop the war permanently, said Badran, he confirms what Hamas has always said, that he is the only party that has obstructed any agreement over the past few months. “He does not want any practical agreement. He wants the war to continue to suit his own personal and partisan agenda. That much is clear, and he is prepared to ignore the growing international consensus, even the world’s highest court, to do this.”
Hamas has apparently told mediators that guarantors for peace should be in place. The movement has suggested Turkiye and Russia, among others. The occupation state, he said, should not be able to veto this, and nor should the Palestinians be expected to accept its promises, because it is accustomed to breaking agreements.
“Al-Aqsa Flood [the 7 October cross-border incursion] has made the world face the fact that if the Palestinians do not take their rights and do not decide their own fate, then regional and international stability will remain at risk,” said Badran. Commenting on what is being circulated regarding the future of Gaza and the border crossings, he added that, “Hamas will not allow the occupation state to have any role in arranging the internal affairs of our people, whether inside Gaza or with its crossings in general, especially the Rafah Crossing.”
READ: Gaza ceasefire plan: More tactical pressure or end of US support for Netanyahu?