IN AN INTERVIEW with Al Jazeera yesterday, Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said the Palestinian group will not engage in further ceasefire discussions until Israel releases the 620 Palestinians who were supposed to be released on Saturday.
Here are some of his comments:
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- Hamas has fulfilled all its obligations according to the ceasefire, which went into effect in January;
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- Unfortunately, Netanyahu and his government have been trying throughout to undermine and sabotage the deal;
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- Israel has committed a lot of violations, including killing more than 100 Palestinians, preventing basic necessities to enter the Gaza Strip and refusing to release the more than 600 Palestinian prisoners;
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- Hamas has conveyed a clear and strong message to the mediators: We cannot continue talking or discussing any further steps if these 620 Palestinians are not released.’
Asked about the immediate future of the ceasefire and whether the Palestinian group would release the bodies of four Israeli captives as scheduled this week, Naim responded that ‘all options are on the table’.
‘Before going to the next step, we have to be sure that the past step, which was releasing 620 prisoners, are already released.
‘Because Netanyahu is clearly sending strong messages that he is intentionally sabotaging the deal, he is preparing the atmosphere for returning back to the war.
‘Therefore, what are the guarantees that he might take the other four bodies and again not release the agreed-upon number of Palestinians plus the 620 Palestinians?’
Naim reiterated: ‘All options are on the table, not only what should happen on Thursday but even the other elements of the deal.’
He also expressed Hamas’s condemnation of the Israeli offensive in the northern West Bank and ‘the silence of the international community towards what’s happening there’, referring to ‘the continuous killing and the destruction against our refugees in the different refugee camps in the north’.
Asked about what role Hamas wants to play in terms of the running of Gaza in the future, Naim replied that even before the October 7th, 2023, attacks, the group had stated many times it was ‘ready to give up’ governing the territory.
‘We are ready to hand over the government in the Gaza Strip to any Palestinian body representing all Palestinians, a unity government, a technocratic government, a special body formed only to run the Gaza Strip in cooperation or in coordination or as a reference with the government in Ramallah – we are ready to do it,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately, all these proposals are rejected from the PA (Palestinian Authority) leadership in Ramallah, and we have said they can come and they can have all the facilitation to run everything inside the Gaza Strip.’
Israeli tanks in West Bank!
Israeli forces deployed tanks in the occupied West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years as part of an intensified military offensive that has displaced 40,000 Palestinians from refugee camps in the north.
Israel said on Sunday that its troops would stay in the West Bank refugee camps for the coming year, announcing expanded military operations, including tank deployments.
Israeli authorities will discuss the approval of the construction of 1,170 housing units in the occupied West Bank tomorrow, Wednesday, according to an Israeli anti-settlement group.
Peace Now said Israel’s Higher Planning Council (HPC) is expected to approve the units across four illegal settlements – Gvaot, Itamar, Shaarei Tikva and Givat Zeev.
‘Of these, 756 units are planned for Gvaot, a settlement adjacent to the Palestinian village of Nahalin, where approximately 50 families currently reside,’ the group said.
It also reminded that the council approved the deposit of 250 housing units in Gvaot in July 2024, adding: ‘With the expected approval on February 26, 2025, the settlement is set to expand twentyfold.’
The mayor of Jenin says 120 homes have been completely destroyed in the Jenin refugee camp, with dozens of other homes and structures partially destroyed in the ongoing Israeli military offensive that started 35 days ago.
The Tulkarem and Nour Shams Camp Committee says the Israeli army has displaced more than 20,000 residents of the camps and completely demolished more than 60 homes in them.
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