Hamas informs mediators of commitment to its position and vision

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, announced on Monday night that it had informed mediators of its commitment to its position and vision that it presented to them on 14 March, Quds Press has reported.

This, said Hamas, is because the occupation state has failed to respond to any of the basic demands of the Palestinian people and resistance: a comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, and a real exchange of prisoners.

“Hence, the movement reaffirms that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his extremist government bear full responsibility for the failure of all negotiation efforts and hindering the process to reach an agreement as of yet,” it added.

Earlier on Monday, the UN Security Council adopted a ceasefire resolution for Gaza during the rest of the fasting month of Ramadan. During his speech at the council, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN objected to the term “ceasefire” as it did not include the word “permanent” and said that he requested an oral amendment to the draft resolution to include “permanent”, but this was not accepted.

The draft resolution was presented by the elected members of the Security Council: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Korea, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Slovenia and Switzerland. It received 14 votes in favour out of 15; the US abstained from voting.

READ: Failure to implement Gaza ceasefire resolution ‘unforgivable’: UN chief