The head of the Politburo of the Palestinian movement Hamas Ismail Haniya said in an interview with the Turkish state news agency Anadolu that the US is an obstacle to reaching a cease-fire agreement in Gaza. “We agreed to these talks on the condition that they lead to a “permanent ceasefire, full troop withdrawal, return of displaced persons and a prisoner exchange agreement,” Haniya said, stressing that Israel has not agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza.
Despite all the meetings held so far and dozens of documents passed through intermediaries, Haniya said that “all Israel wants is to take the prisoners and then resume the war in Gaza. "And that is impossible. The Israeli army must completely withdraw from Gaza. Israel also does not want displaced persons to return to northern Gaza. He agrees to a limited and gradual return. That can't be done either...
An obstacle to reaching an agreement is Israel and the US, which accept his point of view and do not exert pressure. As soon as Israel accepts these demands, we will be ready to sign the agreement,” Hania said. According to him, the death of his sons and grandsons will not lead to concessions in negotiations to achieve a truce in Gaza.
Media earlier reported that Haniya's three sons and several grandsons were killed in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip. Haniya himself, commenting on the death of his sons, said it would not affect the movement's demands for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. In a statement released after the news of the deaths of his sons and grandsons, Haniya noted that around 60 of his relatives had died during the years of confrontation with Israel. “In the first place, it is the failure of the enemy to achieve his military objectives in 7 months and his inability to achieve anything but the killing of civilians, thousands of children, women and old men. The massacre in which 3 of my sons and 5 of my grandsons were killed falls within this framework and highlights the failure of the enemy,” Haniya said.
„The second aspect is that Israel thinks that such a massacre, which extends to my home, my sons and grandsons, will put pressure on the leadership and the leaders of the movement to make concessions in the ongoing negotiations, which is a delusion. Third, my sons are part of the Palestinian people and their situation is the same as the situation of the entire Palestinian people. "I have said from the beginning that the blood of my sons is not more valuable than the blood of the sons of the Palestinian people in Gaza, in the West Bank, everywhere," Haniya said.