Source: China News Weekly
What are the "necessary conditions" for Hamas's ceasefire
On the evening of October 3, local time, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) issued a statement announcing that it had submitted a response to Trump's "20-point plan" to the mediator and expressed its willingness to negotiate through the mediator to implement the relevant plan.
Earlier, in the face of unprecedented international pressure, on September 29 local time, U.S. President Trump announced after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House that Netanyahu had agreed to the "20-point plan" proposed by the United States to end the conflict in Gaza and asked Hamas to respond quickly.
The plan involves the full release of hostages, Hamas disarming, not participating in the post-war governance of Gaza but being pardoned, and Israel not occupying or annexing Gaza. Hamas said in a statement on the 3rd that it agreed to release all hostages "provided that the necessary conditions for an exchange are met." The statement also said it agreed to transfer management of the Gaza Strip, but senior Hamas officials also told the media that Hamas would not disarm until Israel ended its occupation.
High-ranking Hamas official Khalid Kadumi recently interviewed China News Weekly, revealing details of the September attacks on Qatar, the ceasefire negotiations and the Gaza Statute, but refusing to answer questions about whether Hamas supports the “two-state scheme,” whether it will really give up its rule over Gaza after the war, or whether it will reflect on the October 7, 2023.
In the ceasefire plan, Mr. Kadmi introduced the so-called "preliminary conditions": "The borders should be opened immediately, humanitarian aid should enter Gaza immediately, the massacre must stop, the Israeli occupants must evacuate from Gaza, and then we can have (real) negotiations."
Kadumi holds a doctorate in international relations and has served in the political department of Hamas for a long time. He currently serves as Hamas's representative in Iran and external spokesman. He has been interviewed by international media many times and attended the international conference on Palestinian-Israeli issues as a representative of Hamas.
'We are still at the negotiating table'
China News Weekly: Talk first about the ceasefire negotiations process in the Gaza Strip. On September 9, Hamas negotiators were attacked in Doha, Qatar. What is the specific situation?
KADUMI:The attack took place on September 9 local time. The night before, we received a new proposal from the U.S. through Qatar Prime Minister Alessani for a ceasefire agreement. We were asked to discuss it. This is also why Hamas representatives are staying in Qatar. The location of the delegation in Qatar is a public location known to Qataris, Americans and even everyone around the world. Diplomats and local officials have visited here to learn about the progress of the ceasefire negotiations.
On September 9, the negotiating team led by Khalil Haya (note: the main leader of Hamas) was discussing the new plan proposed by the United States. Delegates have a positive attitude towards the new plan. But at this time, Israel fired more than 12 missiles at the mission's premises. As the Prime Minister of Qatar said, this was a terrible, cowardly and betrayal attack. It's no secret that you can't launch an attack on the representative you're negotiating with.
The leaders were fortunate to escape the attack, but some in the administrative management team, including Khalil Ha'a's son, and three other leaders' assistants, left us.
As for the intelligence warning you mentioned, I want to clarify that we didn't receive any warning in advance, and Qatar also said that they had no prior knowledge. The delegates were spared, completely by Allah's blessing.
China Newsweek: How is the current ceasefire negotiations progressing? Will Hamas accept the current ceasefire and hostage release plan?
KADUMI:From the first day of the negotiations, we have been ready to do everything we can to a real permanent ceasefire, but the most important thing now is not what we discuss, but the negotiating mentality of Israel.In fact, in the last year, we have not received anything different, and at the moment we are discussing the proposal that the U.S. government submitted to the mediators between Egypt and Qatar on 17 January this year.
After that, all the "new plans" had only some fine-tuning, such as how many prisoners of war would be exchanged in the first phase? What crossing points are open? We responded positively to these adjustments, but the shocking thing is that every time we responded, and even Mr. Vitkov, the U.S. presidential envoy, said that "Hamas is positive," in the next few hours, Israel would start assassinating senior Hamas members, bombing the Gaza Strip, or making various irrelevant and unreasonable accusations against us.
Mediators on all sides and the international community witnessed this: the United States repeatedly declared that Hamas had responded positively and would continue to move forward with negotiations; but then they heard something new from Tel Aviv (the Israeli government), and the negotiations failed again. But Israeli leaders only want to destroy everyone in the Gaza Strip. They firmly believe in this concept: use greater force if you cannot get something with force; use more blood if you cannot get something with blood.
If Israel is untrustworthy, is Hamas willing to negotiate directly with the US government?
KADUMI:The question now is that we cannot understand whether there is still a real, serious process of negotiation.I can only answer you with more questions: If we stay in Qatar, who will ensure that Israel’s behavior complies with international law?
We are also not sure whether we can still trust the United States. In May this year, when U.S. President Trump visited the Middle East, he asked us to release Israeli soldier Aidan Alexander (Note: Aidan holds dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship and is the last American hostage released in this round of humanitarian crisis in Gaza). This person was an Israeli armored soldier who killed Palestinian children while serving. Despite this, during the mediation process, we released this person in good faith without offering any quid pro quo. This is to show the international community that we are serious and that we want a ceasefire.
We have also had direct negotiations with the Americans. U.S. President’s Special Envoy Witkov met with Hamas leaders. However, in the past few months, no promise made by the U.S. has been fulfilled. President Trump says he will stop the war and open the border to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But these have not been fulfilled. Instead, Israel attacked Hamas’s negotiating representatives after the U.S. proposed a new plan. So, is the U.S. still trustworthy?
So, your question should be asked to the Americans and Israelis. Will they hold real negotiations? Or will the same killing of negotiators be carried out? As for us, we are always open and at the negotiating table.
Conditions for the release of hostages
"China News Weekly": During the high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly, many countries proposed that Gaza should immediately achieve a ceasefire, and Hamas should also release all hostages. Trump's "20-point plan" echoes this call. Is Hamas willing to accept such conditions?
KADUMI:For example, will the Israeli side stop firing on Gaza’s civilian district? Over the past two or three months, Gaza has killed an average of 50 to 70 Palestinian civilians a day from the Israeli army’s cold-blooded attacks on refugee camps. Children die because of the shutdown of the border because of the lack of necessary food medicines. Faced with this situation, what “conditions” are we talking about?
Looking further, for 74 years, Israel has committed genocide against Gaza and Palestine; in the past two years, more than 65,000 civilians have been massacred in cold blood by Israel, including 20,000 children. As we speak, Israeli military bombardments are taking place in residential areas, refugee camps, medical facilities, etc. in Gaza. Faced with this situation, what "conditions" are we talking about?
I believe that many issues should not be related to any "conditions" or any negotiations. For example, borders should be opened immediately, humanitarian aid should enter Gaza immediately, the massacres must stop, and Israeli occupiers must withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Then we can engage in other negotiations, including prisoner exchanges, political solutions, and the formation of post-war governments. At present, we are still at the first step. We have to build trust first, but now we only have artillery fire and killing.
China News Weekly: You mentioned the issue of humanitarian aid, and both Israel and Hamas are accused of obstructing the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.Was Hamas agreeing not to interfere in the distribution of aid by the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations at all, and to avoid politizing any humanitarian effort to enter Gaza?
KADUMI:What you mentioned was an unfounded accusation. The distribution of humanitarian aid was hindered by Israel and the United States. We have long stated that if international organizations were to distribute humanitarian supplies in Gaza, we would have no objection. But Israel insisted on distributing through their own agencies (note: referring to the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” supported by the Israeli government).
Now that it has been said that Hamas is hindering the delivery of humanitarian supplies, our demands are simple: open transit points, allow the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and other international organizations to enter Gaza and distribute food to the people. We do not interfere in these actions, we have our own methods of distribution of supplies, we have our own mechanisms to operate, whether before the war or now. We welcome those international organizations that want to enter, but we require them to fulfill their duty to open the borders of Israel and let these international organizations come from the distribution of supplies.
“Killing the Robot.”
China News Weekly: The Israeli military has begun a new round of large-scale military operations against Gaza City.What do you think is the purpose of Israel’s re-occupation of Gaza City?
KADUMI:I don't call them "hostages", they are "prisoners" and "prisoners of war". As for where they are, I don't know. But what I do know is that Israel is putting these people at risk, as well as its own soldiers at risk.
I think, unfortunately, Netanyahu does not care about the life and death of his people. Israelis took to the streets to protest his policies, but he didn't care. When he talks about goals, all he is talking about is the complete elimination of Palestinians from the world. They are obsessed with reading the situation through religious radicalism, claiming that there are no good Palestinians and that all must be killed. What are the millions of Palestinians in Gaza to them? If they don't care about their own people, how can they care about the Palestinians?
You should note that Netanyahu recently preached a more terrifying anti-human theory. He acknowledged that Israel today is completely isolated in the international community, and then said: “Therefore, we want to make Israel the ‘super-Sparta’ of the Middle East.”Sparta is an ancient Greek city state, focused on militarism, self-sufficiency, and secular isolation. But I want to remind you that Sparta does not cultivate philosophers or doctors, they only cultivate killing machines.
China Newsweek: Currently, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza City cannot evacuate. Will Hamas help civilians move to safer areas? Are there specific evacuation procedures?
KADUMI:This is another important issue that we have explained repeatedly to the international community: we are talking about the Gaza Strip, a long strip of coastal areas with no mountains, no jungles, no shelters like those in Israeli cities. Israel's long-term siege and blockade of Gaza does not allow us to build infrastructure. At the same time, the population is densely populated here, and people have nowhere to go and don't know where to escape. The Israeli Air Force is conducting indiscriminate attacks. We are doing our best to stop this genocide and stop the advance of the Israeli army.
China News Weekly: Does Hamas really still have enough military strength to stop Israel's advance?
KADUMI:Yeah, yeah. Israel is assembling new division-level units and mobilizing tens of thousands of soldiers for a new ground invasion in Gaza City, which means more killing. But they will be resisted. In the past three or four months, we have further strengthened our self-defense capabilities and resisted the attack of the Israeli army by virtue of our own strength and with existing weapons.
I can tell you that recently we conducted a high-quality military operation in the north of the Gaza Strip and successfully defeated the large unmanned vehicles of the Israeli military. It was not ordinary robots, but a remote-controlled cannon loaded with large amounts of explosives. Israeli soldiers deployed them into residential areas to detonate. In order to defeat them, we sacrificed dozens of fighters but achieved defence victories.
In the future, if the international community is not ready to protect our children, then our only option is to continue to defend ourselves.
Press Release: Caoran@chinanews.com.cn