DOHA: Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of delaying a Gaza ceasefire deal and hostage exchange by setting new conditions that mark a “retreat” from an earlier draft.
The statement came after Egyptian, Qatari, and US mediators met with Israeli negotiators in Rome on Sunday in the latest push for a truce in the more than nine-months-old war. Hamas officials have previously accused Netanyahu of hindering negotiations, but Israelis have made similar allegations.
Israeli demonstrators, who have taken to the streets sometimes in the tens of thousands to demand a hostage-release deal, have accused the prime minister of prolonging the war.
“We in the Hamas movement have listened to the mediators regarding what transpired recently in the Rome meeting concerning the ceasefire negotiations and prisoner exchange,” the group said in a statement.
“It is clear from what the mediators conveyed that Netanyahu has returned to his strategy of procrastination, stalling, and evading reaching an agreement by setting new conditions and demands,” it added.
The new terms, Hamas said, represent “a retreat” from an earlier draft communicated by mediators.
Egypt, Qatar and the US have been involved in months of mediation efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The proposed truce deal would be linked to the release of hostages held by Gaza militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,363 people, according to the Health Ministry in the territory.
Also on Monday, Israel’s military opened an investigation into suspected abuse of a Palestinian held at a detention camp for prisoners captured during the Gaza war.
The military said its advocate general had ordered the inquiry “following suspected substantial abuse of a detainee.”
Army Radio said military police had showed up as part of their investigation at the Sde Teiman detention site to question about 10 reserve soldiers suspected of abusing a prisoner captured from an elite unit of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Rights groups including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel have alleged serious abuse of detainees at the camp, a former military base in the Negev desert.
