Hamas says Israel’s response to ceasefire proposal was ‘negative’

Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan has said the Israeli response to the group’s latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was negative, making it likely that the talks in Qatar would again fail to yield an agreement.

Israel’s response to the three-stage proposal handed to mediators was “negative and did not respond to the demands of our people”, he said. These included the cessation of the hostilities in Gaza, the return of the displaced to their homes and the withdrawal of the Israeli military from the strip.

While Hamas showed “flexibility,” Israel backed away from what it had previously agreed on and continued “to procrastinate”, Hamdan said, “which could lead the negotiations to a dead end.”

He blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for blocking the agreement and added that the US must stop sending arms to Israel if it truly wants to stop “genocide” in Gaza.