Hamas likely to issue positive response to Witkoff's ceasefire proposal
Hamas will express opposition to the lack of clear guarantees for ending the war and warns that Israel shouldn't have "freedom of action to renew the war."
Hamas announced Saturday morning that it plans to deliver a response later in the day to the ceasefire proposal that was issued by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, with sources telling Saudi news sources Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath that the terrorist organization will respond positively to the envoy's proposal, but with reservations.
The initial announcement was made by a senior official of the terrorist organization to the Hamas-affiliated newspaper Al-Risalah, adding that the response will come after a series of leadership consultations within the terror group.
Hamas will express opposition to the lack of clear guarantees for ending the war, according to Al-Arabiya, while also reporting that the terrorist organization will warn in its response that it will not allow Israel "freedom of action to renew the war," and will demand US guarantees for the implementation of the clauses in any agreement with Israel. The report also said that Hamas will request, as part of the proposal, that Palestinian prisoners should not be handed over in just two days, as stated in Witkoff's proposal, but rather in batches over the 60-day truce.
"Our observations on Witkoff's proposal were unanimously agreed upon by all factions," the Saudi sources quoted a Hamas source as saying.
Another report on Al-Arabiya claimed that Hamas presented Witkoff's proposal to various Palestinian factions, with some of them asking Hamas to agree to the proposal's outline, even though they do not believe it is perfect.
The factions said that the current outline is an opportunity for Hamas to "stop the war, and make clear that any possibility for it continuing must be taken away from Netanyahu, and the global push against Israel must be exploited to halt the establishment of new settlements in the West Bank."
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