The Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas vows not to back down from its demand for a complete withdrawal of the Israeli regime from the territory, which has been enduring a genocidal Israeli war for the past five months.
Abu Ubaida, spokesman for Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, made the remarks in a televised statement on Friday.
“Our top priority to reach a prisoner exchange deal is the complete commitment for the halt of aggression and an enemy withdrawal, and there is no compromise on this,” Abu Ubaida said.
Hamas also wants “relief for our people, the return of the displaced, and reconstruction,” he added amid warnings that all-out famine is stalking Gaza as a result of the war and a siege that the regime has been simultaneously enforcing against the territory.
Israel launched the war against the Gaza Strip on October 7 after al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups against the occupied territories that was staged in protest at intensification of Tel Aviv’s decades-long crimes against Palestinians.
The regime has so far during the war killed more than 30,878 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents.
Hamas seized about 240 hostages in the October operation, some of whom were released during a week-long truce in November.
Some 99 hostages reportedly remain alive in Gaza and 31 have died in the regime’s attacks on the coastal sliver.
