Senior Hamas official accuses Netanyahu of stalling, sabotaging ceasefire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sabotaging and stalling a ceasefire deal by not providing clear answers in regard to key questions and laying out new conditions, Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau in Gaza has said.

In an interview with the pro-Iran Lebanese Al Mayadeen news outlet, Hamad reiterated that no deal will be agreed without a complete ceasefire.

"Netanyahu undermined the agreement from the ground up," he said.

He added that by laying out new conditions, Netanyahu was trying to change previously agreed upon terms, which he said was prolonging the war on Gaza further.

"The Israeli occupation introduced new conditions related to the Philadelphi Axis, despite prior agreement on a complete Israeli withdrawal from it,” he said, referring to the corridor that separates the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

He warned that “the resistance [Hamas] will not allow, under any circumstances, the presence of occupation forces in any part of Gaza."

He also said that Israel was seeking to find a loophole in the agreement, which would allow it to carry on the war later, calling on mediators to pressure Israel into honouring the terms of the agreement.

Hamad added that both Hezbollah and Iran have the right to retaliate to Israel’s assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, but stressed that this would be separate from ongoing ceasefire talks.

Despite American officials and US President Joe Biden saying that major strides had been made in ceasefire talks from earlier this week, multiple Hamas officials have denied that discussions are progressing.

Hossam Badran, from Hamas’ political bureau, stated that the group would only adhere to terms discussed in mediation attempts on 2 July in a statement released on Telegram.

The 2 July discussions, he said, focussed on a proposal made by the US president, but Netanyahu was preventing parties from reaching an agreement.

According to the Israeli Ynet news site, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri echoed the statement that negotiations are stalling. It quoted him as having said Hamas is “not facing real negotiated agreement, but the imposition of American dictates” and calling the efforts an "illusion".

This week, mediators met in Qatar for two days of negotiations in a bid to secure a ceasefire deal to halt the war on Gaza.

Mediators said they remain committed "in their endeavours to reach a ceasefire in the [Gaza] strip that would facilitate the release of hostages and enable the entry of the largest possible amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza", a Qatar ministry spokesperson said.

While Hamas did not directly take part, an official of the Palestinian movement, Osama Hamdan, told AFP the group would join if the meeting set a timetable for implementing the agreed terms.

He added that Hamas would not engage in negotiations that "give [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu more time to kill our Palestinian people".

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the talks had "a promising start" but acknowledged "there remains a lot of work to do".