U.S. threats complicate Gaza ceasefire efforts, warns Hamas

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - Monitoring: “These threats will only lead to complicate the matters further,” Hazem Qassem said in an interview with Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed on Monday in response to Witkoff’s remarks that the U.S. attacks on Yemen should serve as a warning to Hamas.
Trump’s envoy labelled a proposal put forward by Hamas last week for the release of an American-Israeli prisoners and the bodies of four others as “unacceptable”.
“I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible than they have been,” he further said on Saturday after Hamas suggested a counteroffer to his ceasefire proposal.
Hamas argued that there is already an agreement signed by all parties and reached through the mediation of the U.S. and its envoys, including Witkoff.
“Talking about new proposals is not in the interest of implementing the agreement, and these threats will lead to more complicated matters and will not provide a suitable ground for achieving peace in the region that everyone is seeking,” said Qassem.
He continued that the agreement includes three stages and what clearly needs to be done is to adhere to its implementation by moving on to the second stage.
The negotiations began in Doha and later transferred to Cairo are still ongoing, the Hamas spokesman said, adding that the Israeli regime is afraid of entering the second stage of the agreement, so it is creating obstacles to the negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main fear is the dissolution of his coalition cabinet and the withdrawal of right-wing parties from it, he added.
Despite rejection of the updated proposal presented by Witkoff, negotiations through mediators have not ceased. Hamas insists that the only way to free all prisoners, both living and dead, is to bind the Israeli cabinet to the clauses of the agreement that went into effect on January 19./IRNA News