Gaza, MINA – The Palestinian resistance group Hamas announced on Thursday its willingness to enter immediate negotiations with Israel for a comprehensive agreement that includes the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for a full ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reported.
Khalil Al-Hayya, head of Hamas in Gaza and the group’s chief negotiator, stated in a televised address that partial agreements serve only as political cover for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “agenda of continued war, genocide and starvation.”
“We are ready to immediately engage in comprehensive package negotiations for the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for an agreed number of our prisoners held by the occupation, a complete end to the war, full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the start of reconstruction, and the lifting of the blockade,” Al-Hayya declared.
He welcomed comments made earlier by Adam Boehler, the U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, who voiced support for addressing the hostage crisis and ending the war as a single package. “The fighting would end immediately, immediately if hostages are released,” Boehler told Al Jazeera.
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Al-Hayya urged international intervention to lift the Israeli blockade, warning that over two million people in Gaza are suffering from “genocide by starvation.”
He also revealed that Hamas had accepted a mediation proposal on March 29, at the end of Ramadan, but it was later rejected by Netanyahu, who responded with “unreasonable conditions.” []
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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