Gaza truce talks: ‘Hamas demand for permanent ceasefire is the main sticking point’ • FRANCE 24

well all of that comes as the US
Secretary of State Anthony blinkin has
wrapped up his latest trip to Israel
aimed at advancing the faltering
ceasefire talks on Gaza the US has been
unusually critical of Benjamin
netanyahu’s government in recent weeks
but on Wednesday meeting Israeli leaders
blinkin took a firm tone with Hamas
accusing it of not doing enough to agree
to the
ceasefire if Hamas uh actually um
purports to care about the Palestinian
people uh and wants to see uh uh an
immediate alleviation of their suffering
it will um it will take the deal uh if
it doesn’t I think that’s further proof
that uh it doesn’t care a bit about the
palestin people we’re going to talk more
about this now with Oliver murnan the
director of the NGO Forward Thinking who
joins me now live from Tel Aviv Oliver
we have been waiting for Hamas to agree
to this truce for several days now what
in your opinion is the
holdup well I think the there was um an
improvement in the Israeli offer and I
think that the um the fact that they
were willing to allow um the people in
the southern part of Gaza to return to
the north that they had agreed in
principle to remove Israeli soldiers
from Gaza um was good but the trouble
was the details of that had to be worked
out but I think the main stumbling block
was the fact that there was no movement
on the fact of a permanent ceasefire and
what Hamas have been asking for and I
think the people of Gaza and a lot of
the global Community because of the
humanitarian conditions in Gaza the fact
2.3 million people are living in Daily
lifechanging conditions that a permanent
ceasefire is essential I think that’s
the real sticking point so so given that
where do these truce talks stand at the
moment well
I I think they’re still waiting for the
Hamas leadership to give uh a definite
um answer so we’re in limbo but what
worries me that while we’re in limbo and
we’re focusing on how these talks are
going on the reality on the ground in
Gaza keeps changing and changing for the
worse because um you know every day more
and more people are being added to the
death list and um that’s where I think
that there is need now for a combination
of moral courage as well as political
courage on behalf of the Global
Leadership to say to Israel as friends
of Israel you just cannot go on like
this the consequences will last far
beyond the end of this war but that if
that is indeed the case why do you have
someone like US Secretary of State
Anthony blinkin who seems to be putting
so much pressure on Hamas saying now the
ball is really in its Court it needs to
accept this uh this this ceasefire deal
absolutely well from my experience of
being involved in hostage negotiation I
think that sort of external pressure is
far from helpful um the right at the
beginning we know that there was a
double goal set by Netanyahu one was the
demise of Hamas the second was the
return of the hostages now those two
objectives were incompatible I’ve been
saying from day one you cannot say to
someone I want what you have the
hostages and secondly I’m actually going
to kill you then it it just blocks any
sort of progress worse still is when you
have this commentary going on either a
threat of Greater um military activity
or the political pressure blinkin has
been putting on publicly all that does
in my experience is stiffen resistance
it doesn’t help that doesn’t move things
forward it just stiff
resistance right so given what you’re
saying it sounds like this this already
very tentative possible truce is on its
last legs what happens if again no
agreement is
reached well tragically I think we’re
going to see the destruction of Raa and
we’re going to see Gaza left
uninhabitable or you know sort of in in
the sense that at least Rafa it’s not
the biggest city not the most um best
infrastructure in Gaza but there is some
infrastructure that could enable um the
rebuilding on the medical on the health
on the education on the economy it it
could be the center for the Regeneration
immediately after this war stops if it
is destroyed those challenges will be
far far greater so again I come back to
what is desperately needed both on moral
grounds the fact that we have still a
rule-based or claim to have a rule-based
international order to protect that and
more important to protect the hostages
their families and the 2.3 million
people in Gaza we need moral leadership
as well as political leadership and said
this cannot go on all right Oliver thank
you for speaking to us Oliver murnan
there in Tel Aviv thank you

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday the Palestinian militant group was studying a proposal for a truce in the nearly seven-month war raging in Gaza with a “positive spirit”, even as the talks continue to drag on after several days without much sign of an agreement. Oliver McTernan, director of the Forward Thinking NGO, says the most likely sticking point in the negotiations is that Hamas is asking for a permanent ceasefire, rather than just a temporary truce.
#Hamas #Gaza #truce

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9 comments

  1. With Netanyahu being persistent about invading Rafah, who in their right mind would agree to a pause in atrocities until the hostages are released, knowing the atrocities would resume once the hostages are released? It is clear that Netanyahu and his cabinet want to eliminate the Palestinians, but the western powers that support him fail to acknowledge it.

  6. Permanent ceasefire means that the perpetrators can get away with their crime. This will embolden them to repeat their crime over and over again. Insanity

  9. Why would Hamas do anything? They are not negotiators, but a regime designed for violence, and for fighting against overwhemingly unfavorable odds. Thus suing for peace is exactly contrary to all of their goals and against their methodologies.

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