'We won't negotiate further', says senior Hamas official in Doha
'We are not going to negotiate anymore. There is no need for negotiations,' senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told ITV News
Hamas will engage in no further negotiations over Gaza ceasefire talks, and without further pressure on Israel, the talks will end in failure, a senior Hamas official told ITV News.
Speaking from Qatar, Osama Hamdan, said Hamas had agreed to American proposals in June this year, but that changes to those proposals now make them impossible to agree to.
Mr Hamdan said: "We are not going to negotiate anymore. There is no need for negotiations.
"There is a proposal which was introduced and was agreed on by Hamas. We prefer to start implementing that proposal.
"And the United States have to make the needed pressure on Israel to accept that proposal."
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Both Israel and Hamas have accused the other of changing the terms of previous proposals relating to ending the latest war in Gaza.
Mr Hamdan said Hamas believes Israel is not committed to a lasting peace and would wish to resume fighting after a brief pause for the release of hostages held since October 7.
"We are still committed to our agreement to the proposal, which was introduced on June 24," he said.
"We have talked to the mediators, the brothers in Qatar and Egypt, that they have to do their best to convince the United States to make the needed pressure on the Israeli side.
"If they did not, that would mean we would face the failure of those negotiations. Unfortunately."
Osama Hamdan said the United States has to apply the 'needed pressure' to Israel for a peace deal to be reached
Without an end to the fighting, Mr Hamdan said the region would face further destabilisation and Israel would not gain the security it seeks.
He warned a failure in the ceasefire could see others widen the conflict.
Iran and Hezbollah have both vowed to support Hamas and may separately respond to the deaths of their own senior leaders with strikes on Israel.
"They [Iran and Hezbollah] have a clear position that they will continue their support for Hamas," Mr Hamdan said.
"They have declared that in public, there is no need to talk about secret understandings.
"They have said that in public, and I believe maybe more people will find that they have to participate in supporting the resistance more than even our allies."
'They [Iran and Hezbollah] have a clear position that they will continue their support for Hamas'
His words came with a warning: that continued fighting in Gaza and a failure of world powers to implement peace posed a threat to global security.
Mr Hamdan added: "We will not have a stable world and it means we may be close to a new world war and the responsibility would be on the shoulders of the countries who consider themselves as the greatest nations in the world."
Peace talks resumed last week in Doha, but Hamas refused to participate directly.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel to further push the message of peace, insisting the negotiations in Qatar may be the last chance to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Mr Blinken, during a meeting with Israeli President Issac Herzog, said the war had arrived at a "decisive moment" and "probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security".
More than 40,000 Palestinians have now died as a result of Israel's military operation into Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
At least 1,200 people died and hundreds more were abducted after Hamas launched an attack into southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
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