Israel has no right to impose conditions: Hamas

CAIRO

The United Nations only has the right to talk about ceasefire conditions in the Gaza Strip, not Israel, a senior leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said Saturday.

Commenting on remarks by Israel Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Amira Oron, that Gaza-based resistance factions have to stop their fire first before negotiating with Israel, Hamas Political Office Deputy Chief, Moussa Abu Mazouq, said it is the right of the United Nations only to talk about conditions in this regard, not Israel.

"We expect this to be said by the United Nations only, not Israel," Abu Marzouq told Anadolu Agency.

Oron told AA earlier that Israel had not decided to send a delegation to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza to the Egyptian capital Cairo.

She said, however, that a change may happen in the following few hours, making this conditional on a real ceasefire in Gaza.

Abu Marzouq said Palestinians do not trust the words of Israeli officials.

"Israel does not have real or serious intentions for calm," Abu Marzouq said. "The massacres that took place in Rafah today prove this," he added.

A delegation of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, Islamic Jihad, another heavyweight Gaza-based movement, and Fatah, the movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is reported to be on the way to Cairo to engage in talks about a ceasefire between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Israel has been pounding the tiny Palestinian enclave since July 7, killing 1660 and injuring 9000 and turning thousands of homes and buildings to rubble so far.

An ambitious three-day humanitarian truce that started at 8:00am Gaza local time (0500 GMT) on Friday faltered only two hours later when Israel resumed its shelling of the southern Gaza Strip City of Rafah, accusing Hamas of breaching the ceasefire.

www.aa.com.tr/en