Hamas official denies regional efforts to reach truce with Israel

Senior Hamas official in Lebanon Osama Hamdan denied on Friday any effort exerted to reach a truce between his movement and Israel regarding the ongoing escalation in the West bank and the Gaza Strip. “Hamas’ message is clear: aggression is being inflicted on the Palestinians and this has to be stopped immediately,” he said. “The siege on Gaza is a part of this aggression.”

He refused attempts of the Israeli occupation to impose new conditions on the Palestinian resistance by circumventing deals reached in 2008 and 2012.

Hamdan denied reports of regional efforts to bring about a truce between Israel and Hamas. He noted that Egypt has not yet intervened for this purpose because the occupation wants to maintain its pressure on the resistance.

Several media reports mentioned that Egypt is mediating between Hamas and Israel in order to stop the escalation and reach a truce. Hamdan said that the current aggression against the Palestinians has revealed the “hypocrisy” of many sides, which sees resistance as a form of “terrorism.”

“The ongoing aggression has disclosed all attempts to hide Israeli cruelty,” he said. He insisted that security cooperation is “tyranny.”

Palestinian fighters in Gaza have fired homemade rockets at Israeli settlements around the Gaza Strip in revenge for the Israeli campaign against Palestinians in the West Bank, which started when three Israeli settlers were kidnapped on 12 June.

In response Israel is threatening it will carry out a massive offensive against the Strip in order to deter Palestinian fighters and stop rockets being fired.