Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV on Wednesday quoted an unidentified senior Hamas official as saying that the movement’s representatives will not participate in the Doha meeting on Thursday.
The Hamas official underlined that Hamas would not accept the start of new negotiations in Doha without the other side’s adherence to the proposals presented on July 2.
The official also pointed out that Netanyahu had set new conditions, which would disrupt the negotiations.
Speaking to Al Mayadeen on Wednesday , Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ahmad Abdel Hadi, said, “The current atmosphere is clearly one of deceit and stalling by Netanyahu, killing time while the Axis of Resistance prepares to respond to the assassinations of martyrs Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr.”
“The intention is to bring the Hamas movement back to square one, which is not in the interest of our Palestinian people,” he stressed, making it clear that Hamas will not take part in negotiations that provide cover for Netanyahu and his “extremist" cabinet.
He emphasized that Hamas believes Thursday's negotiations will begin from a point prior to square one, saying that the movement considers it unproductive to revisit issues that have already been resolved.
The Hamas official pointed out that the assassination of the movement's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the Al-Tabieen school massacre in Gaza City confirm that Netanyahu is intent on escalating the conflict.
The Israeli regime’s Channel 13 TV recently reported that on the eve of the start of a new round of prisoner swap talks and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu has once again announced new conditions.
Netanyahu called for the immediate release of 33 prisoners alive and also asked his negotiators to consider the regime’s opinion on the identity of the Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas as the main criterion for the release of the prisoners, and to determine a mechanism for the return of the Palestinians to their areas of residence in the northern Gaza Strip.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States, as mediators of indirect talks between Hamas and the Israeli regime, recently issued a statement calling on the Tel Aviv regime and the Palestinian resistance movement to resume ceasefire talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo.
The negotiations have not yielded any results so far. Israeli media outlets repeatedly quoted the regime’s security officials as saying that Netanyahu is to blame for the failure of the ceasefire talks.
4208**4354*4353