[Jimbuna]

Hamas unlikely to accept peace deal

Hamas is likely to turn down Israel’s proposal for a truce as it does not include clear commitments for ending the war in Gaza, a top official from the group has said.

Souheil al-Hindi, a member of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza, said late on Wednesday that the terrorist group is likely to respond negatively to the much-touted proposal for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

He told AFP: “Hamas is open to any dialogue with mediators, whether Egyptian or Qatari, and is also open to all initiatives to end the war on the Palestinian people, but within very clear conditions that cannot be abandoned.”

“As long as there is a continuation of the war, I believe that the Palestinian resistance has spoken on this issue.”

A leaked copy of the proposal included a pledge to create “sustained calm” in Gaza once the first stage of the deal is implemented. The vaguely worded phrase is the closest Israel has come to signalling its willingness for a truce, while its leadership keeps publicly denying suggestions that it stop the war in Gaza altogether.

The remarks came amid reports that the ultimate decision on the proposal will be made by Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and one of the masterminds of the Oct 7 massacre in southern Israel.

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 on Thursday quoted a “source close to” Mr Sinwar as saying that the proposal on the table for a deal is “an Israeli proposal in an American disguise and it contains a series of booby-trapped clauses”.

The source also said exiled Hamas functionaries do not speak for the terrorist group.

Israeli media on Thursday morning cited unnamed Israeli security officials who said they were not optimistic about the outcome of the talks, despite high hopes from Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state.

Israel’s war cabinet will be meeting on Thursday evening to discuss the possible deal after a previous meeting was cancelled on Wednesday night.

Protesters and families of some of the hostages in Hamas captivity on Thursday morning rallied in support of the deal, decrying Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks that Israel would launch an offensive on Gaza’s Rafah no matter what happens to the hostage negotiations.

Families of several Israeli hostages and their supporters briefly blocked the main highway in Tel Aviv during the morning rush hour, demanding an immediate deal.

They unfurled a banner saying “Rafa or the hostages - choose life”.

Meanwhile, UN experts have recently published estimates of the damage that six months of war has done to the densely populated Gaza Strip.

A new report by two UN agencies on Thursday said at least 370,000 housing units in Gaza have been damaged, with 79,000 of them completely destroyed.

It would take until at least 2040 to rebuild all the destroyed homes, without repairing the damaged ones.

On Wednesday, the head of the UN’s mine clearing agency said there was more rubble, some of it contaminated with mines, to clear in Gaza than in Ukraine where the front line is 600 miles long – compared to just 25 miles in the Gaza Strip.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...cc290698&ei=26