Hamas vision clear – stop the aggression: Official

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad has said that the group’s “priority” amid the ongoing negotiations is a stop to the war.

“Our vision is very clear: We want to stop the aggression,” he said. “What is going on in the ground is a big catastrophe,” added Hamad, referencing the “mass destruction and mass killing” caused by the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The member of Hamas’s political bureau said “some people” are looking for brief pauses in fighting of a few days or weeks but added that that was not in Hamas’s and Palestinians’ interest.

“Israel will take the card of the hostages and after that they will start a new round of mass killing and massacres against our people,” he said. “We will not play this game.”

Hamad added that once the war stopped, Hamas was “ready to negotiate with all” and reach a “big compromise” for the Palestinian prisoners and the captives in Gaza.

The Hamas official has also addressed reports of the group’s leaders having talks with leaders from the rival Palestinian faction Fatah about what Gaza would like at the end of the war.

Hamad told Al Jazeera that Hamas has called on Fatah and other Palestinian factions “many times” in order to have discussions and “take decisions together”.

“The problem is still the president of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas], who is still rejecting these calls from Hamas,” he argued. “We are very interested to meet our brothers from Fatah and the Palestinian factions in order to think how we can deal with the current situation in Gaza, either politically or the humanitarian aspect or these American attempts in order to change the situation.”

Since the start of the war, US President Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to see a revitalised Palestinian Authority take charge in Gaza once the conflict is over.

Hamad said that until now, there have been “no good steps” taken from Fatah “in order to come close to Hamas”.

“We are open to sit with him [Abbas], to talk with him and with all Palestinian factions, first as a priority to stop the aggression and after that we can think how we can deal with the situation either in the West Bank or Gaza in order to rearrange the Palestinian home, in order to have one political system, one Palestinian authority,” he added.

“This is I think in our interest but I hope and I expect from our brothers in Fatah to show more positive steps in this direction.”

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