News- Middle East: The leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has strongly condemned Israel and the United States for withdrawing from ceasefire negotiations despite “clear progress” that had been made in the talks.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Khalil al-Hayya said the US and Israel are “wasting time” to intentionally hinder talks and facilitate the continued extermination of Palestinians in Gaza.

Al-Hayya said Hamas had demonstrated “every possible flexibility” in negotiations since the Israeli war began 22 months ago, adding that the latest round of talks witnessed “clear progress” and “significant agreement,” particularly on the Israeli troop withdrawal, prisoner exchanges, and aid delivery.

Noting that mediators conveyed to the Palestinian team “positive responses” from Israel, the key Hamas figure said, “but we were surprised to find that the occupation withdrew from the negotiations, and that the US President’s envoy to the Middle East, [Steve] Witkoff, was in league with it.”

Al-Hayya said Hamas strongly rejects Israel’s insistence on maintaining its aid distribution mechanism in Gaza, which has been condemned by the United Nations as a “death trap.”

The US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations in May, about two months after Israel blocked the flow of aid into Gaza, triggering worldwide condemnation for the weaponization of food in the strip.

On Tuesday, the UN human rights office said Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinian aid seekers in Gaza since May, mostly near sites run by the GHF, which bypasses a UN-led aid system.

Al-Hayya said there is “no point in continuing negotiations” as Palestinians are starving in Gaza. 

He demanded the “immediate and dignified entry of food and medicine” as a prerequisite for any further negotiations, refusing to let Palestinian suffering be used for “occupation’s negotiating tricks.”

On Friday, a senior Hamas official told CNN that two of the remaining sticking points in Gaza ceasefire talks are the exchange of prisoners and the schedule for Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip.

According to the official, Hamas had submitted two proposals on the issue shortly before the US and Israel pulled their delegates out of talks on Thursday, blaming the resistance movement for the failure to reach an agreement.

Amid growing international criticism of Israel regarding mass starvation in Gaza, the occupying regime on Sunday claimed that it will stop its attack for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza.

Meanwhile, Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official, stressed that Israel was continuing its offensive, dismissing the announcement as an attempt to deceive the international public opinion.

"What is happening isn't a humanitarian truce," Baraka said, noting that Israeli forces killed and wounded many Palestinian aid seekers in several areas in the Gaza Strip.

Baraka stated that Israel continues to starve more than two million civilians in Gaza.

He also urged the international community, the United Nations, and other human rights organizations to take immediate action to stop Israel's massacres, end the siege imposed on Gaza, urgently and permanently open the land crossings, and allow the unconditional entry of aid into the Strip.

The official slammed global silence on Israeli atrocities, saying it amounts to “tacit complicity in them,” warning that “history will not be merciful to those who collude or watch the Palestinians’ suffering, including killing and starvation.”

Israel's bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 59,921 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Source: Press TV