Hamas says military commander Al-Deif alive in Gaza

Senior Hamas leader, Osama Hamdan, yesterday confirmed that the Commander of Al-Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Al-Deif, is alive.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Hamdan said Al-Deif is alive. Israel claimed to have killed him on 13 July.

On that day, Israel killed more than 90 Palestinians and wounded 300 others in an air strike targeting tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis, designated by the Israeli occupation authorities as “safe”.

Regarding the ceasefire-prisoner exchange talks with Israel scheduled to start in Doha yesterday, Hamdan said: “Any meeting should be based on talking about implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines rather than negotiating something new… Otherwise, Hamas finds no reason to participate.”

“Hamdan accused Israel of not engaging in good faith and said the group does not believe the US can or will apply pressure on Israel to seal a deal,” AP reported, adding that Hamdan said, “the Americans were unable to convince the Israelis. I think they did not pressure the Israelis.”

Hamdan also indicated that throughout the negotiation process, Hamas was serious and responsible, responded to the proposals, discussed, negotiated, expressed its opinion, and rejected things, but it adhered to the negotiating path. However, according to the senior Hamas leader, Israel on the other hand, manoeuvred, sending delegations which weren’t authorised to sign deals, changed the delegations from one round to another, and thus the teams had to start over, or imposed new conditions, and often every time it used the method of massacres, killing and aggression to sabotage the course of negotiations.

Talks began once again in Qatar yesterday in an effort to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and end the ten month genocidal bombing campaign being carried out by Israel in the besieged enclave.

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