Hamas official warns of no ceasefire deal if Israeli aggression on Gaza continues

BEIRUT: Hamas official Osama Hamdan warned on Tuesday that if Israel’s military aggression continues in Rafah, there will be no ceasefire deal.

Hamdan’s comments were made during a press conference in Beirut as a delegation from Hamas, the group that runs the Gaza Strip, arrived in Cairo from Doha to continue ceasefire negotiations, a statement from the group said on Tuesday.

“We affirm that the military operation in Rafah, if carried out by Israel, will not be a picnic for the (Israeli) army,” Hamdan said.

“The ball is in Netanyahu’s court,” he added, saying that the latest ceasefire proposal which Hamas agreed to “represents the minimum that responds to the demands of our people and our resistance.”

“The Rafah crossing was and will remain a purely Egyptian-Palestinian crossing,” Hamdan said.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas should be able to close the remaining gaps in their positions in order to reach a ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, the White House said on Tuesday.

“We believe that these gaps can be closed,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters as negotiators began gathering in Cairo for a fresh round of discussions.

Kirby said the Palestinian group Hamas had offered amendments on Monday to an original Israeli proposal aimed at ending the impasse.

The deal text, as amended, suggests the remaining gaps can “absolutely be closed,” he said.

Kirby said the Israelis had assured US officials that the operation was of limited scope and duration and not a large-scale invasion.

The Palestinian Authority called on the United States to “intervene immediately” to prevent Israel from invading Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Tuesday.

The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said in a statement on Tuesday that a 70-year-old Israeli hostage died after she succumbed to wounds from Israeli shelling.

Israel’s offensive on Rafah will likely kill more civilians and is being carried out despite explicit warnings against it from European Union member states and the United States, the EU’s top diplomat said on Tuesday.

“The Rafah offensive has started again, in spite all the requests of the international community, the US, the European Union member states, everybody asking (Israeli Prime Minister)Netanyahu not to attack”, Josep Borrell told journalists.

“I am afraid that this is going to cause again a lot of casualties, civilian casualties. Whatever they say”, he said, adding: “There are no safe zones in Gaza.”