In a televised statement, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called on residents of the West Bank and Jerusalem to barricade themselves at the al-Aqsa Mosque at the beginning of Ramadan. Haniyeh also called for “a broad and international movement to break the siege on al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Hostage negotiations
Haniyeh asserted that when it came to hostage negotiations, Hamas was demonstrating “flexibility,” though the terrorist group maintained that they would continue fighting.
Haniyeh addressed the possibility of the IDF’s invasion of Rafah and expressed hope that international efforts would restrain Israel’s ambitions of an invasion.
In his own words, “The occupation and its partner, the United States, will not be able to achieve through political machinations what they did not achieve in combat. The world, especially Arab states, must restrain the enemy and refuse to let them invade the city of Rafah.”