Posted on 03/05/24
| News Source: JPost
Hamas publicly insisted Tuesday that a permanent ceasefire must be in place before any deal is implemented for the release of the remaining 134 hostages held in Gaza, in a statement that seemed to run counter to optimism from Washington that an agreement was possible before the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
“In the past two days, the movement presented its position on the proposal put forward by the brotherly Qatari and Egyptian mediators,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in Beirut.
He spoke as ceasefire talks mediated by both Egypt and Qatar continued in Cairo with no sign of a breakthrough.
“We reaffirmed our conditions for a ceasefire: a full pullout from the Strip and the return of the displaced [Palestinians] from areas they left, in particular in the north,” he said.
Hamdan repeated his group’s conditions for a deal: An end to the Gaza war, a withdrawal of Israeli troops, and the return of displaced Palestinians to homes they have fled in other parts of the enclave.