Hamas Says Will Continue Truce Talks "Positively" Despite Rafah Evacuation

Gaza:

A Hamas spokesman said Monday that the Palestinian group would continue negotiations towards a truce in Gaza, despite Israel's order to begin evacuating people from Rafah in the south.

"We will continue the negotiations positively and with an open heart", Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou told AFP.

He reiterated that an agreement was needed to provide "for a permanent ceasefire and the fulfilment of the demands of our people".

Israel has publicly rejected a permanent ceasefire.

Qanou's comments came after Israel's military early Monday ordered the evacuation of Palestinians from eastern Rafah, ahead of a long-threatened ground invasion of the southern Gaza city, the prospect of which has triggered widespread global alarm. 

After the latest round of truce talks in Cairo failed to produce a breakthrough over the weekend, Hamas's delegation headed back to Qatar where its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, is based.

"The movement's leadership is in a state of internal and factional consultation after the last round of negotiations in Cairo," Qanou said.

Any truce reached would be the first since a week-long November ceasefire saw a hostage-prisoner swap between Israel and the Islamist movement.

But negotiation efforts to halt their seven-month war have stalled in part because of Hamas's demand for a lasting ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vows to continue the ground operations and crush Hamas's remaining fighters in Rafah.

Hamas's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal is something "no Israeli government can accept", a statement from Netanyahu's office said, maintaining that "would allow Hamas to once again militarily control the Strip" and prepare for another "October 7, as it has promised to do".

Senior officials of Hamas accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the truce talks out of "personal interests". Netanyahu's office called this "an absolute lie" and said, "it is Hamas that sabotages every deal by not budging an inch from its extreme demands."

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