![Senior Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishq in Ankara, Turkey on October 18, 2019 [Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/20191018_2_38815477_48594701.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said on Tuesday that Gaza will not surrender, and it is the resistance that will set the terms, not Israel.
In a statement on his Telegram account, al-Rishq described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks — about securing the release of all hostages and the surrender of Hamas — as a reflection of “psychological defeat and delusion, not battlefield realities.”
He added that “after the enemy’s leaders have admitted their total failure in recovering their captives through military operations, it has become clear that the only way to secure their release is through a serious deal with the resistance.”
Al-Rishq stressed that the Palestinian resistance has already imposed new dynamics and conditions on the ground and will continue to do so.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military campaign, which continues with full US backing, occupation forces have committed what rights groups describe as acts of genocide in Gaza. The ongoing assault has left around 194,000 Palestinians killed or injured — the majority of them women and children — along with over 11,000 missing and hundreds of thousands displaced.
READ: First round of Hamas-Israel ceasefire talks in Qatar ends without progress
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