The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has guaranteed that there will be no more hostage releases without the prior establishment of a ceasefire, an official said.
Hamas’s priority is to stop the aggression of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip “once and for all” and that has been made known to all mediators, Osama Hamdan told Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera in response to a news published by Israeli media that Hamas was negotiating a new agreement for the release of hostages.
For this reason, he reiterated, there is currently no talk of a prisoner exchange, stressing that the cessation of fighting in Gaza is a precondition for this to happen, the same media stated.
The Hamas representative also denied that a possible release in exchange for a one-month ceasefire had been discussed, accusations that were published in Israeli media.
Hamdan had already affirmed this position of Hamas in mid-December, stressing that all issues “can be negotiated.”
On October 7, Hamas commandos launched a terrorist attack on Israeli soil, during which they killed 1,139 people, most of them civilians, according to the most recent report by Israeli authorities.
That day, some 250 people were also kidnapped and transferred to Gaza, 129 of whom remain captives of the movement, in power in the Palestinian enclave since 2007.
Israel declared war on Hamas and more than 21,500 people have been killed in bombings in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, said Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by several countries, including Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Source: TSF
