Hamas slams Blinken's remarks on rejecting Israel's 'generous' ceasefire proposal

The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to reporters during the press briefing at the State Department in Washington, United States, March 13, 2024. [Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency]

The Palestinian Hamas group, on Friday, strongly denounced a statement by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, accusing the group of rejecting Israel’s “generous” ceasefire proposal, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement, the group described Blinken’s statement as “blatant bias” to Israel and “a falsification of reality” that confirms that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is obstructing the talks “for his personal political interests”.

“Hamas’s negotiating tactics have always been rooted in the interests of our Palestinian people,” the statement added.

In a briefing on Friday, Blinken accused Hamas of “standing between the Gazan people and a ceasefire.”

He also claimed that Hamas has “rejected generous proposals from Israel”.

At several occasions, Hamas outlined its parameters to any deal with Israel which are the Israeli army’s complete withdrawal from Gaza, the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza and the flow of humanitarian aid in sufficient quantities.

The US, Qatar and Egypt have tried to broker an agreement to release the remaining Israeli captives. However, no breakthroughs have been reached, so far.

Israel has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians since a 7 October, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 250 hostages taken.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The conflict has pushed 85 per cent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Global calls for a ceasefire have been growing as the war has entered its seventh month.

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