News - Middle East: The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has condemned US President Joe Biden's recent remarks on the Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip as a setback to the ongoing negotiations on a ceasefire deal for the besieged territory.

The movement made the comment in a Sunday statement after Biden raised the topic of Israeli captives during a speech in Seattle, claiming that a ceasefire in Gaza would be possible if Hamas released them.

“We in the Islamic Resistance Movement have watched with dismay the statements made by US President Joe Biden in which he stated that a ceasefire in Gaza is contingent upon Hamas releasing the captives in the Strip,” the movement said in its statement.

"We condemn this position by the US president, [and] we consider it a setback to the outcomes of the latest round of negotiations, which led to the movement's agreement to the proposal put forward by mediators, Egypt and Qatar," Hamas added.

The movement stressed that it has shown “the necessary flexibility” in all stages of the negotiations held to halt the Israeli aggression against Gaza and reach a ceasefire agreement.

However, Hamas added, “the terrorist [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu” and his cabinet “quickly reversed this course [of ceasefire talks] by launching their aggression on our people in Rafah, Jabalia, and Gaza.”

Hamas noted that Israel’s move to escalate its onslaught on various parts of Gaza confirms Netanyahu’s intention “to continue the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, and [also proves] his disregard for the lives of [Israeli] captives” held in the territory.

In another part of the statement, Hamas asserted that Biden’s position reaffirms once again the United States’ biased support for “the criminal policy led by … the Nazi Zionists.”

The movement said the United States continues to provide “political cover and military support” for Israel’s onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza, and is trying “to buy more time for the terrorist occupation army to complete its operations of destruction, killing, and genocide in the Strip.”

Last Wednesday, a senior Hamas official said the Israeli regime is prolonging underway negotiations on a potential truce in Tel Aviv’s months-long war on the Gaza Strip, so it can carry out a full-scale invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

“Israel is not serious about reaching an agreement,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau said, adding that the regime “uses the negotiations as a cover to invade Rafah and occupy its crossing” with Egypt.

At least 35,034 civilians, most of them women and children, have been killed so far as a result of the genocidal war that the regime began on October 7, 2023 following a retaliatory operation by Gaza’s resistance groups. A total of 78,755 Palestinians have been also injured as a result of Israel’s indiscriminate strikes.

Source: Press TV