The head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyehinformed Egypt and Qatar this Monday, May 6, that the Islamist group has accepted its proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas made the announcement in a brief statement in which it offered no further details, after the Israeli Army ordered some 100 thousand Palestinians in eastern Rafah evacuate the town in the event of a possible ground assault.
“Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, held a call with the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the Egyptian Intelligence Minister, Abbas Kamel, and informed them of the Hamas movement’s approval of his proposal on a ceasefire agreement,” the Palestinian group said.
At the moment the details of the proposal are not known, nor the position of the Israeli authorities.
It appeared that indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip were at a standstill, after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday refused to end the war, a key demand of the Islamist group.
This morning, in fact, thousands of Palestinians in the southern town of Rafah received messages urging them to evacuate to the Khan Younis area, setting off alarms over the possibility that the Army will soon begin its announced ground invasion in southern Gaza. .
The Islamist group today warned Israeli forces that any military operation in Rafah “will not be a picnic,” and that the group’s armed wingthe al Qasam Brigades, are prepared to “defend our people.”
Hamas also asked international organizations still operating in the enclave, and in particular the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), not to abandon it following Israeli evacuation orders.
