Netanyahu hindering ceasefire agreement to end genocide in Gaza: Hamas
Iran Press TV
Sunday, 24 August 2025 6:42 PM
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approval of the plan to occupy Gaza City confirms his determination to obstruct any ceasefire agreement.
"We agreed to a partial deal, while we also expressed readiness for a comprehensive one; HOWEVER, Netanyahu rejects all solutions," Hamas said in a statement on Sunday.
This comes after Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal, which met most of the demands outlined by Israel and its main backer, the United States.
However, Israel immediately launched a new assault to seize Gaza City, home to nearly a million displaced civilians.
The new offensive took place despite urgent United Nations appeals to halt the operation amid what aid agencies describe as "unimaginable" levels of starvation and destruction.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi also said that a comprehensive deal to end Israel's genocidal war on Gaza was possible, but Netanyahu was deliberately sabotaging negotiations and insisting on the continuation of the onslaught.
The Sunday statement by Hamas further stressed that a number of US and Israeli officials have also acknowledged that the Israeli prime minister was preventing any agreement, and insists on prolonging the Gaza war.
"Israeli and American admissions confirm that Netanyahu is the real obstacle to prisoner exchange deals and ceasefire," the statement read.
Israel's Channel 13 investigative programme HaMakor, quoting senior American and Israeli officials, recently reported that Israel blocked a ceasefire agreement on seven occasions during nearly two years of its devastating military aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip.
"Recent statements by former US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller affirm that Netanyahu was procrastinating and lying, through placing new conditions whenever we were close to finalizing an agreement," Hamas said.
Gadi Eisenkot, who served on the Israeli war cabinet, also said that the first ceasefire in November 2023 came after Netanyahu and his former war minister piled up obstacles.
Eisenkot said the deal could have been extended, but the Israeli authorities refused to move forward.
"We could have brought back seriously wounded and elderly people alive, who unfortunately were later murdered or killed," he said
In May 2024, Netanyahu approved a proposal that would have ended the war, but he withdrew his support shortly afterwards.
"We spent the last few months seeing the government of Israel at times trying to sabotage an approach to get to a ceasefire," Miller said. "They were always looking for ways to add conditions or make the terms more difficult."
In the following months, Netanyahu continued to harden his position, including insisting on Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza.
In January 2025, Israel and Hamas signed a two-phase agreement after months of difficult negotiations.
Although the deal was meant to lead to a permanent ceasefire, Miller said, the administration of Donald Trump "didn't really pressure Israel to stick to the terms and let the prime minister resume the war" when Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire in March.
According to Miller, Netanyahu told former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: "We are going to be fighting this war for decades to come. That's the way it's been, that's the way it's going to be."
Hamas' statement stressed that a ceasefire agreement was the "only way to return the (Zionist) prisoners, and Netanyahu bears full responsibility for their fate."
"More than 22 months of aggression have proven the illusion of "absolute victory" touted by war criminals Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich."
Elsewhere in the statement, the Palestinian resistance called on the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli regime to stop the genocide across the blockaded Palestinian territory.
"We call for continuing official and popular pressure to stop the genocide and starvation against our Palestinian people."
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