Israeli attacks not helping Gaza talks, Netanyahu creating obstacles: Hamas

Hamas accuses Israeli leader of obstructing negotiations for truce and hostage release as mediators again push for deal.

Hamas says escalating Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip are not helping negotiations to end the war and has accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of creating obstacles to the talks.

In a statement on Monday, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh warned that the “catastrophic consequences of what is happening in Gaza” could “reset the negotiation process to square one”.

Netanyahu and his army will bear “full responsibility for the collapse of this path”, Hamas quoted Haniyeh as saying.

The statement said Haniyeh made “urgent contact” with mediators Qatar and Egypt over the expanding actions of the Israeli military, which issued further evacuation orders for areas in the neighbourhoods of Gaza City, displacing thousands of Palestinians, many of whom have been forced to move multiple times.

On Sunday, Israel’s military ordered “immediate” evacuation for the Tuffah, Daraj and the Old City neighbourhoods of Gaza City in the north.