Gaza's resistance groups announce response to 2nd truce proposal

“The Hamas Movement recently delivered its response regarding the framework agreement to the brothers in Qatar and Egypt, after completing leadership consultations in the Movement and with the resistance factions”, the statement reads.

“The Movement dealt with the proposal in a positive spirit, ensuring a comprehensive and complete ceasefire, ending the aggression against our people, ensuring relief, shelter, and reconstruction, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, and completing a prisoner exchange,” the statement continues.

The statement comes as the US Secretary of State and Qatari prime minister broke the news during a joint news conference in Doha.

Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani welcomed Hamas’ “positive” response to a possible new cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

“We received Hamas’ response to the framework agreement,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said.

“The Hamas response contains notes but is generally positive,” he added.

The Qatari premier cited progress in the negotiations, but declined to provide further details. “We seek to reach an agreement as soon as possible in cooperation with our partners in Cairo and Washington,” he said. “The war in Gaza must end, and we do not want an escalation in the region or a threat to international navigation.”

Mohammed al-Hindi, deputy secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad, Hamas' fellow Gaza-based resistance group, likewise, laid emphasis on the need for the Israeli aggression to stop, the regime's forces to withdraw from the territory, and efforts to be made towards enabling reconstruction of the war-hit coastal sliver.

"Our response to the framework agreement was in essence consistent with our constants, with minor modifications to the wording," he said.

Ihsan Ataya, member of the Islamic Jihad's Political Bureau, separately asserted that any agreement had to feature opening of Gaza's crossings to humanitarian aid.

He also noted that the Israeli regime and the United States -- Tel Aviv's biggest supporter -- had realized that they could not determine Gaza's future, and that "nothing can change politically in Gaza."

Around 27,600 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and adolescents, have died in the war that the Zionist regime began waging last October following Operation al-Aqsa Storm by the resistance movements, during which hundreds were taken captive.

A first truce took effect between the two sides last November, which saw the release of 105 Israeli captives held in Gaza and 240 Palestinian prisoners held by the Israeli regime. The deal also allowed some humanitarian aid into Gaza, but the aid supplies were far below what was needed amid the all-out Israeli siege.