Palestine keen to see hostage-release deal, cease-fire happening: Foreign minister

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - Palestine is keen to see the release of all hostages, including prisoners, and the establishment of a cease-fire "as soon as possible, before the month of Ramadan," Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told Anadolu.

"If there is an opportunity for the release of hostages, an exchange of Palestinian prisoners who have spent many years in Israeli prison, and for the cease-fire to be arrived at, because release of hostages means that there should be a cease-fire. And if there is a cease-fire, it means that the entry of humanitarian aid will be possible, not only to the south, but also to the north," al-Maliki said in an interview in Geneva where he is taking part at the 55th Human Rights Council.

"So we are keen to see that happening," he said. "And we hope it will be as soon as possible, before the month of Ramadan, in order for people to pick up themselves, to breathe freely, without bombing and killing and shooting in Gaza."

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is due to start next week.

He added that such a humanitarian cease-fire would give them the opportunity to also see how to turn it into a permanent one, as well as the ability to start thinking how to reconstruct Gaza.

As talks on a hostage-release deal continue with the mediation of the US, Qatar, and Egypt, US President Joe Biden on Monday said Israel would halt its war in Gaza during Ramadan if a hostage deal is reached.

Palestinian Hamas group, believed to be holding more than 130 Israeli hostages, demands an end to Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Gaza in return for any hostage deal.

A previous deal in November saw the release of 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners in exchange for 240 Palestinians, including 71 women and 169 children.

- World court 'not going to tolerate' Israel's failure to comply with provisional measures

Al-Maliki stressed that if Israel does not respect the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Tel Aviv will "pay the price for that" as ICJ decisions are binding for everyone.

Israel submitted its report on Monday as it was asked by the top UN court, he said, adding: "Maybe the report itself is very false, where Israel will say that they are abiding by the provisional measures, but in reality, they are not. But obviously, South Africa will look into that report, and they will respond back to the court."

He also noted: "So, we are watching that. And the court is not going to tolerate or accept that Israel does not abide by its own provisional measures, that's for sure."

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Nearly 29,900 Palestinians have been killed and over 70,000 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

- Undeclared objective of Israel's war to make Gaza 'uninhabitable'

The Palestinian foreign minister also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "wanting to prolong the war," and said the forced displacement in the besieged strip shows the "undeclared intention" of making the strip "unlivable."

"Netanyahu's objective of this war is to make Gaza uninhabitable, and that's why he has been destroying everything in Gaza," al-Maliki said. "He didn't leave (even a) small structure without being destroyed. So it's obvious that the undeclared objective of Netanyahu's war is to make Gaza unlivable, uninhabitable."

To do that, he said, Netanyahu began forcibly displacing Palestinians from the north into the center and from the center into the south.

"And that's why today, he's not allowing people to go back to the north," he said, adding that Tel Aviv is turning the north into a buffer zone for Israeli security.

Netanyahu "has to be contained and constrained," he urged, noting: "If not, we might see the whole region in flames."

"We have to take precautionary measures and to be preventive enough, not to allow him (Netanyahu) to drag us into a regional war that will destroy everything," the foreign minister said.