Hamas: Ceasefire should be implemented instead of making ‘new, side agreements’

Hamas has demanded entering the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned his back on instead of introducing “new and side agreements,” Anadolu reported.

In response to statements by US President Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, Hamas’s spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Anadolu that “implementing the ceasefire’s phases guarantees achieving the agreement’s objectives,” adding that “the language of threats will not yield anything positive, but will complicate matters without serving the agreement’s purposes.”

Qassem’s statements came after Witkoff described Hamas’s demands regarding the ceasefire agreement as “an unacceptable response.”

Hamas’s spokesperson added that achieving the agreement’s objectives in a proper and sustainable way means implementing what has already been agreed on by all parties.

He stressed that the US administration had proposed a framework that went into effect on 19 January, and that mediators, including Witkoff, acted to implement that framework, which guarantees releasing all captives and achieving a lasting calm.

READ: Hamas condemns Israeli attack in northern Gaza, calling it ‘deliberate’ sabotage of ceasefire