“We reiterate that there will be no negotiations without a comprehensive cessation of aggression,” the terrorist organization said on Monday evening. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an increase in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. The war will be “long” and is “not near the end.”
Hamas’ leadership is committed to “a complete and not just a temporary end to the massacres of our population,” the Hamas statement continued. The radical Islamists were reacting to an Arab media report that Egypt had drawn up a draft to end the Gaza war in several stages. As the Saudi TV channel Ashark News reported on Sunday, the first phase would be to enforce a ceasefire lasting at least two weeks. During this time, 40 hostages held in the Gaza Strip were to be exchanged for 120 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
In a second phase, there should be a Palestinian dialogue under the auspices of Egypt to “end the division” and form a technocratic government, it said. This passage refers to the rivalry between the two largest Palestinian groups, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah and the Islamist Hamas. Only in a third phase should there be a complete ceasefire and a comprehensive agreement on the exchange of hostages and prisoners, which should lead to a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu wants to deepen the fight
According to a report in the Times of Israel newspaper, Israel’s war cabinet planned to address the Egyptian proposal on Monday. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to troops in the Gaza Strip that Israel would “deepen the fight in the coming days.” He spoke of a long fight once morest Hamas, the end of which is not imminent.
During a speech before the Knesset, Netanyahu later promised to free the hostages of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas who were still in the Gaza Strip. However, the Israeli army needs “more time” to increase military pressure on Hamas. Relatives of the hostages booed Netanyahu several times during his speech and chanted “Now! Now!” to support their calls for more efforts to release the hostages more quickly.
Search for victims continues
After heavy Israeli attacks in the central section of the Gaza Strip, the search for dead continued in the rubble on Monday. The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health spoke on Monday of a large number of dead and injured people, whose rescue efforts were underway. According to information, more than 70 people were killed in air strikes in the refugee district of Al-Maghazi. The information has not yet been independently verified.
The war between Israel and Hamas has now been going on for 80 days. The trigger was a large-scale attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th, in which around 1,140 people were killed and around 250 others were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
More than 20,000 dead
Since then, Israel has been carrying out massive attacks in the Palestinian territory – with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. According to the latest figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 20,670 people have been killed so far.
