Image source, EPA
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- Author, Thomas Mackintosh
- Author's title, BBC News
New setback to the hopes of peace in Gaza.
The Palestine Militia Hamás has reaffirmed that it will not accept to disarm unless a sovereign Palestinian state is established, thus refusing to one of Israel's essential demands in conversations about a high fire in Gaza.
The Palestinian armed group thus responded negatively to comments attributed to the United States peace envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
According to Hamas, Witkoff had said that Hamas had “expressed his will” to leave arms.
Israel considers the disarmament of Hamas one of the key conditions Iireenciables in any agreement that ends the conflict.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to achieve a high fire and the release of hostages stagnate last week.
The diplomatic pressure on Hamas had increased the last days, after all the Páisses of the Arab League and the European Union urged him this week to deliver their weapons as a previous step to the creation of a Palestinian State, in an attempt to promote a high fire and reopen the road to the state solution for the Palestinians.
The message to Hamas has also had as a recipient the Israeli government, to which several Western countries require that it ends the suffering of the population of Gaza, where according to various international organizations the famine extends, and allows the delivery of humanitarian aid of the United Nations.
France, the United Kingdom and Canada announced plans to recognize the Palestinian State if Israel did not meet certain conditions before September.
Both Israel and States since Donald Trump returned to the presidency reject a possible Palestinian state.
Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, declared that it would not give its right to “resistance and their weapons” unless an “independent and totally sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is established.”
The Lieutenant General of the Israeli Army (FDI), Eyal Zamir, warned Friday that there would be no truce in the fighting in Gaza if the negotiations failed to quickly ensure the release of the hostages retained by Hamas.
On Saturday, the Hostén family Evyatar David issued a statement after Hamas published a video in which he was seen without a shirt and demacrated in a dark tunnel
They accused Hamas of being killing him as part of a propaganda campaign and called the Israeli and American governments to do everything possible to save him.
Image source, Reuters
Trump's envoy in Gaza
The American envoy, Witkoff, has been visiting Israel in the midst of growing pressure to the Israeli government due to the deterioration of humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
UN agencies have warned about a massive famine and have blamed Israel, who controls the entry of all supplies into the territory. The Israeli government insists that there are no restrictions on help deliveries and denies that there is a famine.
Witkoff met on Saturday in Tel Aviv with the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
Images published online showed the Washington negotiator received with applause and supplications of help by supporters of the families of the hostages when they arrived at a place that has become known by the protests.
Witkoff said peace efforts should focus on putting an end to the conflict and bringing home to all hostages, instead of what he called a partial agreement.
Witkoff met with Netanyahu on Thursday and Friday inspected a help point in South Gaza that has been widely criticized.
Image source, Getty Images
The latest United Nations figures indicate that at least 1,373 Palestinians have died when they tried to receive food since the end of May. According to the UN, most have fallen through the bullets of the Israeli army near the distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial organization backed by Israel and the United States.
Israel has accused Hamas of instigating chaos near the delivery points and says that his troops do not open intentionally against civilians.
The current war in Gaza began when the Israeli army launched a campaign in the strip in response to the attack perpetrated by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people died and another 251 were taken as hostages.
Since then, more than 60,000 people have died in Gaza and 169 people, including 93 children, have died from malnutrition, according to the Ministry of Health of the Territory, directed by Hamas.
