Hamas ready to sign Gaza ceasefire, but Netanyahu blocking it, says top Hamas leader : Valley Vision

Top Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said that the Palestinian group has been ready to sign a ceasefire deal for Gaza, but Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prevented that from happening.

“The last Israeli proposal was presented on May 27. It was presented by the Israeli occupation and adopted by [US President Joe] Biden word by word. The US also went to the Security Council and it was adopted there. Hamas welcomed the principles put out by Biden and the decision of the Security Council. We expected an opportunity for an agreement. We agreed to the talks,” al-Hayya, who leads Hamas’s negotiating team, said to Al Jazeera.

Yet Israel started to evade any agreement, with Netanyahu imposing new conditions and “falsely” claiming that Hamas had rejected the proposal, al-Hayya said.

“In fact, we agreed to Israel’s proposal that was presented on May 29,” he said to Al Jazeera. “We only sent questions to the mediators who confirmed that all our questions are approved.”

The Hamas leader went on to criticise the US for the lack of progress.

“Unfortunately, the American side is following two paths. In the first path, it wants an agreement, yet it does not pressure the Israelis. In the second path, it unfortunately spreads an atmosphere of hope and positivity that is not true,” he said.

Al-Hayya added that the Israelis have refused to compromise in recent talks.

“On Thursday, we asked [the mediators], ‘What have you agreed to after two weeks of talks?’ They said they did not reach anything with the Israelis, and we asked them to bring solutions to all the issues of disagreement. Unfortunately, today, the negotiations are [being held] over the new conditions put out by Netanyahu – and that’s not an acceptable way to negotiate.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel, demanding a ceasefire deal after the bodies of six more captives were recovered from Gaza. The country is also set for a general strike.