Hamas calls for allies to join war against Israel

Group calls for escalation as Gaza ceasefire negotiations stall in Cairo

A Palestinian man stands at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

Hamas will not agree to any “concessions” in exchange for a ceasefire deal and is calling on its regional allies to “widen” the confrontation with Israel, an official said on Thursday.

Statements made by Mahmoud Taha, Hamas’s head of media relations in Beirut, were issued after sources close to the ceasefire negotiations reported that talks scheduled to begin in Cairo on Thursday have been postponed until next week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will not get anything from the resistance, and Hamas will not agree to any additional concessions”, Mr Taha told The National.

“Hamas supports widening the confrontation with Israel and for allies to join the ongoing battles, including the Fatah movement,” added the official.

Persistent disagreements between Israel and Hamas on key points have foiled yet another US push to get a ceasefire deal for Gaza across the line.

Hamas accuses Mr Netanyahu of adding new conditions to an already agreed-upon deal and has largely dismissed talks held in Doha this week.

Fears that the war could escalate into a wider conflict have gripped the Middle East since the late-July assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut. Iran and the militant group have vowed to avenge their deaths.

Iran-backed armed factions in the Middle East have said that they would halt attacks against Israeli targets if a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.

“Hamas has not and will not mourn any negotiations and is always open to any solution that ends the war, but it knows that there will be nothing new in the negotiation round in Cairo, just as nothing new happened in Doha,” stressed Mr Taha.

Meanwhile, senior Israeli officials arrived in Cairo on Thursday evening with a new proposal to end Egypt and Israel's dispute over the 12-kilometre Salah Al Din strip, also known as the Philadelphi Corridor, sources familiar with the talks told The National.

Mossad's Director David Barnea, Ronen Bar of the Shin Bet and senior Israeli military officials were joined by White House Co-ordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk to discuss security measures on the land, which runs along Egypt's border with Gaza.

The sources said Egypt was most likely to reject the latest Israeli offer and stick to its demand that Israel fully pulls out from the are as well as the Palestinian side of its land crossing with Gaza as soon as a Hamas-Israel deal is struck.

Israel captured Salah Al Din and the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing in May.

Hamas' call to widen the conflict came as the UN Security Council was warned the war could spill over into the occupied West Bank amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation.

“While the eyes of the international community are focused on Gaza, the occupied West Bank is a tinderbox of violence and tension,” UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland told the meeting in New York.

“Israeli security forces continue to carry out large-scale operations … including targeting Hamas, PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and other armed groups in densely populated refugee camps and Palestinian urban centres.”

The US also urged the security council to speak with “one voice” to pressure Hamas to agree to the bridging proposal hashed out in Qatar last week.

“As members of this council, we must speak with one voice and we must use our leverage to press Hamas to accept the bridging proposal, which includes massive and immediate benefits for the Palestinians in Gaza and incorporates a number of Hamas's earlier demands,” said US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Israel was also accused of carrying out water-related violence against the Palestinians on Thursday, with the California-based think tank Pacific Insitute finding it committed a quarter of all global attacks on water supply in 2023.

The acts tracked by the institute included the Israeli military and settlers contaminating or destroying wells and pumps on 90 occasions last year.

On Thursday, Israeli authorities said they had arrested four Israelis on suspicion of rampaging through a West Bank Village on August 15. One Palestinian was killed and more injured as a group of Israelis set cars and homes alight and damaged water tankers over the space of two hours.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attacks at the time, which have grown in number since the start of the war.