Hamas says ready to free all remaining captives at once if conditions met
Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, says the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the group, has forced Israel “to cross the red lines it set for itself on [Palestinian] prisoner release, breaking the shackles of a number of symbols of the prisoner movement”.
He stressed that Hamas confirms its seriousness in completing all stages of the captive-prisoner exchange operations.
The group is ready “to carry out a single [prisoner] exchange operation in the second stage in exchange for the occupation’s commitment to a sustainable ceasefire, withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of our prisoners from its prisons”, Qassem added.
Hamas ready to abandon governance role in Gaza: Naim
We have more from Hamas politburo member Basem Naim, who has discussed the rhetoric and actions by Arab leaders and also the US and the future of Gaza.
“We have said many times, even before October 7 [2023], that we are willing immediately to leave the governing position in the Gaza Strip and to allow any Palestinian unity government or a technocratic government or any alternative which is decided by Palestinians within the Palestinian consensus,” he said.
Naim said the group welcomes an Egyptian proposal to form a committee tasked with governing all aspects of life in Gaza in coordination with the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah.
The official added that Hamas was founded as a national Palestinian resistance movement with clear goals, including “to get rid of the occupation, to achieve the Palestinian genuine and national goals of statehood, self-determination and the right to return”.
“We will continue our struggle with all other factions and all our people to achieve these goals through all means, including political and diplomatic means and armed resistance. But to run the daily lives of Palestinians, like health, education and social affairs, we are ready to leave it to a consensus-based solution.”
No immediate alternative to Hamas in Gaza: Former Israeli diplomat
Alon Pinkas, a former ambassador of Israel in New York, says the impasse over Gaza cannot be overcome since there is currently no alternative political entity to Hamas to fill the governance vacuum there.
Pinkas, who is also a former Israeli consul-general in New York, said there could be no progress in the situation as long as Israel insists that any sort of government there will not include Hamas.
However, he stressed that given the devastation Gaza suffered, even Hamas have realised they cannot stay in power in the same way they have been in for the last two decades or so.
“So there needs to be a complimentary force,” he added. “This can be an inter-Arab force with a Palestinian component in it,” the former ambassador said, also stressing Israel currently rejects the idea.
