Hamas says it accepts US ceasefire proposal, awaits Israel’s response
Hamas says it has accepted a proposal forwarded by the US’s regional envoy, which reportedly includes withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
“We have accepted Steve Witkoff (the American envoy)’s proposal to reach a ceasefire and the withdrawal of hostile forces,” a member of the Gaza-based resistance movement’s Political Bureau, Basem Naim, said on Tuesday.
“We are awaiting the occupation’s response,” the Palestinian official added.
Naim, however, did not comment on the details of the proposal.
Earlier this month, Naim had noted that Witkoff had personally assured the group that the United States would pressure the Israeli regime to end its near-total siege on the Gaza Strip and permit humanitarian access.
The envoy, according to Naim, had said the US would start applying the pressure within two days of Hamas’s releasing American-Israeli trooper Edan Alexander, whom the group handed over on May 12.
According to the Hamas member, Witkoff had also promised that US President Donald Trump would make a public call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for negotiations aimed at achieving a “permanent ceasefire.”
Witkoff, though, “did nothing of this,” Naim said at the time.
Hamas says US special envoy Witkoff promised that the US would pressure Israel to end the Gaza blockade and permit humanitarian access within two days of freeing American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander.
The remarks correspond to the US’s historical support for the Israeli regime as its most-endeared regional ally, and Washington’s incessant efforts at protecting Tel Aviv against all consequences of its atrocities.
The Gaza genocidal war, which began after resistance fighters staged a retaliatory operation, has so far claimed the lives of more than 53,977 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
An 11-year-old girl, recognized as the Gaza Strip
An Israeli all-out siege has, meanwhile, been exacting a staggering toll on the already-impoverished and war-wracked territory’s population, with humanitarian groups denouncing the Israeli regime for deploying starvation as a weapon of war against Gazans.
