Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas is stalling President Joe Biden’s ceasefire deal with additional demands, including an “up-front commitment to permanent truce” from the Israeli government, Israeli media reports say.
The new demands made by Hamas reportedly amount to significant amendments to the ceasefire deal offered by President Biden. “Israel says terror group made drastic changes that amount to a rejection of its offer,” The Times of Israel reported Thursday. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that Israel will not agree to a deal that ends the war before Israel achieves its aim of dismantling Hamas’s governing and military capabilities in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas has used previous ceasefire talks to regroup and rearm terrorist forces. After Israel withdrew its military from Gaza in early April amid pressure from the Biden White House, the Islamist group rallied terrorist fighters in northern and central Gaza.
Besides the U.S., Hamas wants the United Nations, China, Russia, and other friendly countries to vouch for the deal that will protect its terrorist assets from any further Israeli military operations. “Hamas has also demanded that China, Russia, Turkey, and the U[N] be guarantors of the agreement,” the Jerusalem Post wrote.
The Israeli TV channel i24NEWS on Thursday reported Hamas’s new demands:
The demands include having three “interconnected and continuous phases” of the ceasefire, including a complete IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip within the first phase.The Hamas leader also told Reuters that they demand to be the ones to choose the list of one hundred Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences for terrorism crimes who would be released from Israeli jail. In addition, the Hamas leader says the Israeli blockade on Gaza would have to be lifted and allow the free movement of people and goods into the enclave.The demands were echoed by Taher Al-Nono, the media advisor to Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh. Speaking to Al Jazeera by phone, Al-Nono emphasized the importance of having three continuous phases to the ceasefire deal in order to prevent Israel from resuming it’s strikes on Gaza. Al-Nono said the IDF would have to withdraw from the Philadelphi axis and the Rafah crossing as part of the agreement.Haniyeh’s advisor also revealed that Hamas had requested additional guarantors be added to the deal, such as Turkey, Russia, China and the UN. Al-Nono addressed the reports that the U.S. was attempting to strike a unilateral hostage release deal to free five captives who hold American citizenship, which Al-Nono denied. He told Al Jazeera, “We have not received anything official from the American government.”
With Hamas stalling talks while holding nearly a hundred Israeli hostages for over eight months, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued hitting terrorist fighters and infrastructure in Rafah and throughout Gaza.
“IDF troops are continuing intelligence-based, targeted operations in the area of Rafah,” the Israeli military said in a press release Thursday. “Over the past day, the troops conducted targeted raids in the area, located weapons, and eliminated several terrorists in close-quarters encounters.:
“During one of the operations, IDF troops used a drone to identify and strike an armed terrorist,” the military disclosed. “Afterward, an IAF aircraft struck the structure in which the terrorist had been operating. Additionally, the IAF struck a launch site containing rockets that were ready to fire from the area of Rafah toward Israel.”
A day after an Israel airstrike killed Hezbollah’s senior-most terror commander since October 7, the Lebanon-based terrorist group intensified rocket attacks into northern Israel.
The slain commander, Sami Taleb Abdullah, led Hezbollah’s elite Nasr terrorist force and had “planned, advanced, and carried out a large number of terror attacks against Israeli civilians,” the IDF disclosed Wednesday.
Hezbollah rockets and explosive drones ignited several forest fires in northern Israel. “Over 100 rockets and multiple drones were launched from Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, triggering continuous air raid sirens across northern Israel,” the Israeli news website YNET reported. “Air defenses intercepted several rockets, while others landed in fields, igniting brush fires in at least 15 locations. Firefighting teams have been dispatched to contain the blazes.”
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