Hamas says its demands are unchanged as Biden pushes for Gaza cease-fire
A top Hamas official vowed Friday that the killing of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, would change nothing for its war with Israel, saying that it would fight on even as President Joe Biden pressed for a deal to stop the conflict in the Gaza Strip and free the remaining hostages there.
In Hamas’ first official comments since Israel announced Sinwar’s death Thursday, his deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, said that the group maintained its conditions for a cease-fire. He said Hamas still insisted on an end to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, as well as its complete withdrawal from the territory and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
“We are continuing Hamas’ path,” al-Hayya, who lives in exile in Qatar, said in televised remarks in which he praised Sinwar for dying on the battlefield and added that his “banner will not fall.” It remained unclear when Hamas would announce a successor to Sinwar, who was fatally shot by Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
Sinwar orchestrated the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages. The assault led to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has killed 42,000 people, according to local health officials, and left much of the territory in ruins.
American officials, as well as many Israelis, have been pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to reach a cease-fire deal that would secure the release of the 101 hostages still being held in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
The United States had often blamed Sinwar for obstructing a cease-fire deal. But Netanyahu on Thursday took an ambiguous stance toward the entreaties of his American allies abroad, who want a deal, and his far-right allies at home, who want to crush Hamas. The prime minister’s office released a statement saying that he agreed with Biden that there was “an opportunity to advance a deal to free the hostages,” but Netanyahu also said in a video address that Israel would continue its attacks on Hamas.
“This is not the end of the war in Gaza,” he said in the address. “It is the beginning of the end.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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