Beirut/Tel Aviv, Mar. 7, (dpa/GNA) – The Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement said on Wednesday that it will continue negotiating through mediators until an agreement on a ceasefire is reached with Israel.
“The movement will continue to negotiate through its mediator brothers to reach an agreement that fulfils the demands and interests of our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
Hamas said it has shown the required “flexibility” to reach an agreement which requires “a cessation of aggression” in Gaza and accused Israel of putting obstacles in the way of talks.
“[Israel] is still evading the main points of this agreement, especially those that will achieve a permanent ceasefire, the return of the displaced, withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and providing the needs of our people,” Hamas said.
Representatives from the United States, Qatar and Egypt are negotiating a temporary ceasefire with Hamas in Cairo. Israel is not participating directly in the talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding that Hamas submit a list with the names of the hostages held in Gaza who are still alive.
However, Hamas officials said they were unable to say which of the hostages kidnapped from Israel were still alive because of the Israeli attacks.
Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups kidnapped some 240 people when they attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people.
Israel responded with relentless bombardment of the sealed-off Palestinian coastal area and launched a ground operation into Gaza in order to eliminate Hamas.
According to the latest figure by the Hamas-controlled health authority in the strip, 30,717 people have been killed in the fighting so far and another 72,156 have been injured.
The Israeli military on Wednesday claimed to have killed another five Hamas militants in Gaza said to have been involved in the massacres committed in southern Israel on October 7.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
The humanitarian situation in sealed-off Gaza is considered to be catastrophic after almost five months of fighting and calls from the international community have been mounting for Israel to let in more aid.
According to a media report, the Israeli government is set to authorize aid deliveries by ship for the first time since the beginning of the war.
Israel has reached an agreement to this effect with unspecified international institutions, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday. Plans to transport aid by ship were also confirmed on Wednesday by a spokesman for EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels.
Von der Leyen is expected to be in Cyprus on Thursday and Friday, where she will visit the port of Larnaca, from where the goods are set to depart, her spokesman said, without giving further details.
Aid reaching the Gaza Strip on lorries is a far cry from what is needed by the starving population, and convoys have been looted.
Meanwhile, tensions have also increased in the occupied West Bank, where a 14-year-old suspect was detained following a suspected knife attack in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to police.
The boy is believed to be a resident of the Arab-dominated eastern part of Jerusalem, police said. The teen is suspected of attacking a man with a knife at a bus stop in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov. The 64-year-old victim was taken to hospital with stab wounds to his upper body, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
The suspected attacker initially fled the scene, the police reported. According to Israeli media, the boy is said to be Palestinian.
For around two years, attacks committed by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank have been on the rise, a development further exacerbated by the Gaza war. At the same time, there has also been an increase in violence by Israeli settlers targeting Palestinians.
In a move expected to further fan the flames, Israel has given the green light for the construction of some 3,500 homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank, several local outlets reported on Wednesday.
The responsible authority has approved construction plans for a total of 3,476 new housing units across three Israeli settlements near Jerusalem, the Haaretz newspaper said.
The Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, but the current government has been pushing to expand them.
Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967 where more than 700,000 settlers now live among around 3 million Palestinians. The Palestinians are demanding the territories for their own state – with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement said it attacked an Israeli post near the Lebanese border with a suicide drone on Wednesday, triggering Israeli shelling.
Elsewhere, the Israeli military said it had attacked various Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
It added that an “explosive drone” was identified in northern Israel from the direction of Lebanon. There were no injuries, the Israeli army said.
Since the Gaza war broke out, there has been daily shelling on the border between Lebanon and Israel. There are concerns that the war could spread deeper into Lebanese territory.
GNA