CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas' acting Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said in remarks broadcast on Wednesday that there would be no hostages-for-prisoners swap deal with Israel unless the war in the Palestinian enclave ended.
"Without an end to the war, there can be no prisoner swap," Hayya said in a televised interview with the group's Al-Aqsa television channel, reiterating the group's position on how to bring the war to an end.
"If the aggression is not ended, why would the resistance and in particular Hamas, return the prisoners (hostages)?" he said. "How would a sane or an insane person lose a strong card he owns while the war is continuing?"
Efforts to negotiate a truce for Gaza have stalled, and the US on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an unconditional permanent ceasefire. Washington's UN ambassador said the US would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of the Israeli hostages as part of a ceasefire.
Hayya, who led the group's negotiating team in talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, blamed the lack of progress on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in turn holds the Islamist group responsible for the stalled talks.
"There are contacts under way with some countries and mediators to revive this file (negotiation). We are ready to continue with those efforts but it is more important to see a real will on the side of the occupation to end the aggression," said Hayya.
"The reality proves that Netanyahu is the one who undermines it (negotiations)," he added.
Speaking during a visit to Gaza on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Hamas would not rule the Palestinian enclave after the war had ended and that Israel had destroyed the Islamist group's military capabilities.
HAMAS WELCOMES EGYPT'S GAZA POST-WAR PROPOSAL
Netanyahu also said Israel had not given up trying to locate the 101 remaining hostages believed to be still in the enclave, and he offered a $5 million reward for the return of each one.
Hamas wants a deal that ends the war and sees the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held captive in Gaza as well as Palestinians jailed by Israel, while Netanyahu vowed the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated.
Qatar, a key ceasefire mediator alongside Egypt, said it had informed Hamas and Israel that it would stall its mediation efforts unless the two warring parties showed "willingness and seriousness" to reach a deal.
On Nov. 19, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said the political office of Hamas in Doha had not been permanently closed.
Earlier this month, Reuters quoted a US official saying Washington had asked Qatar to expel the group and that Doha had passed this message on to Hamas.
Al-Ansari said the Hamas office had been created to facilitate mediation efforts to end the Gaza war.
Hayya said Hamas had welcomed an Egyptian proposal for Hamas to form an administrative committee with the rival Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas to run the Gaza Strip, a move that addresses the outstanding question of how the enclave would be run when the fighting stops.
But an agreement has yet to be finalised, Hayya said. Israel rejects any Hamas role in governing Gaza after the war and neither does it trust Abbas' Palestinian Authority to take over running the enclave.
The 2023 attack on Israel, which shattered Israel's aura of invincibility, marked the country's bloodiest day in its history, with 1,200 people killed and over 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel responded with its most destructive offensive in Gaza, killing nearly 44,000 people and wounding 103,898, according to the Gaza health ministry, and turning the enclave into a wasteland of rubble with millions desperate for food, fuel, water and sanitation.