Hamas Officials Say They Don't Want To Release Hostages Only To Be Bombed By Israel

Humanitarian and UN convoys in the Gaza Strip. (Twitter/@DrTedros)

JAKARTA - Senior Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, told Qatari television station Al Jazeera that his party was not interested in releasing hostages only to be attacked by Israel.

Hamad said a permanent ceasefire to his group's conflict with Israel was their "priority."

"Israel will take over the hostages and after that they will start a new round of mass murder and massacre against our people," he said, according to The Times of Israel, December 20.

"We will not play this game," he said.

He also said Hamas was ready to make a "major compromise" if the war stopped.

On this occasion, Hamad also said that his party was interested in reconciliation with its rival, Fatah, regarding the future of Gaza after the war.

He claimed the Hamas group had repeatedly contacted Fatah to "take a joint decision", but to no avail, blaming Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads Fatah, for its indifference.

"We are open to sitting with him, to talk to him and with all the Palestinian factions, first as a priority to stop the aggression and after that we can think about how we can handle the situation in the West Bank or Gaza to overcome this problem. Rearranging the Palestinian home, to have one political system, one Palestinian authority," he explained.

It is known that Fatah's alliance with terror groups could trigger United States sanctions against Ramallah. The US says it wants a revitalized PA to run government in Gaza, supporting Israel's efforts to crush Hamas. Meanwhile, Israel believes that Fatah is too close to Hamas.

Hamad told Al Jazeera that Hamas had asked Fatah and other Palestinian factions "many times" to hold discussions and

"The problem still lies with the president of the Palestinian Authority (Mahmoud Abbas), who still rejects Hamas's call," he said.

"We are very interested in meeting with our brothers from Fatah and the Palestinian factions, to think about how we can deal with the current situation in Gaza, both politically or humanitarian aspects or American efforts to change the situation," he said.

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

Hamad said that to date "no good steps" have been taken by Fatah "to approach Hamas".

"We are open to sitting with him (Abbas), to talk to him and to all the factions in Palestine, first as a priority to stop the aggression and after that we can think about how we can handle the situation in the West Bank or Gaza to reorganize the Palestinian homeland, to have one political system, one Palestinian authority," he explained.

"I think this is in our interests, but I hope and expect our brothers in Fatah to show more positive steps in this direction," he concluded.