By Abdul Salam Fayez
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday accused Israel of evading negotiations to reach a prisoner exchange deal for prolonging its war on the Gaza Strip.
"The Israeli occupation is avoiding negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal to prolong the aggression and commit further massacres,” Haniyeh said in a televised speech.
“We insist on the condition of ending the aggression," he said, blaming military support from the US and other countries for Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Gaza.
Hamas is estimated to be holding more than 130 Israeli hostages, while Tel Aviv is holding more than 9,100 Palestinians in its jails.
Hamas demands an end to Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the territory for any hostage-prisoner swap deal with Tel Aviv.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian enclave since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed around 1,200 people.
At least 32,975 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,577 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
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.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week asked it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul