Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss / February 14, 2025
Hamas politburo member Ismail Radwan tells Mondoweiss that Israel’s violation of the ceasefire’s humanitarian protocols “attempts to achieve what it could not achieve through its criminal war of extermination” in Gaza.
Developments over the past week have threatened to unravel the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Israel has consistently delayed or obstructed the implementation of the major humanitarian stipulations of the agreement guaranteeing the entry of fuel, food, tents, mobile homes, and heavy machinery for the removal of rubble. The first phase of the deal, which is currently ongoing, is supposed to see the entry of 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes, but as of the time of writing, only a fraction has entered, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
Hamas has accused Israel of deliberately delaying and obstructing the entry of aid into Gaza, describing it as “a new war on the Palestinian people.” At the start of this week, the Palestinian resistance group’s military spokesperson, Abu Obaida, had announced that Hamas would suspend the release of more Israeli captives until Israel abided by the terms of the ceasefire. The announcement elicited strident threats from the U.S. and Israel, with Trump vowing that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release them by noon on Saturday, while Netanyahu said that Israel was prepared to end the ceasefire and return to combat.
“We are committed to the timeline for releasing the [Israeli] prisoners in accordance with the [ceasefire] agreement,” senior Hamas official and politburo member Ismail Radwan told Mondoweiss on Thursday. “We are committed so long as the Zionist occupation is [also] committed to it.”
“The Zionist occupation is evading its obligations under the ceasefire agreement,” Radwan asserted. “The occupation’s goal is to deepen the suffering it created through its genocidal war against our people.”
Radwan referred to a number of Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, including opening fire on Palestinians and obstructing the return of the displaced to the north, which Hamas documented and sent to Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
Drop Site News obtained a copy of Hamas’s report, which lists a number of Israeli violations of the ceasefire terms, including delays in releasing Palestinian prisoners, obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential supplies, and “political violations” in the form of statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailing Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. The Hamas document says these incendiary statements send “a clear message that the occupation does not wish to honour the agreement and aims to implement Trump’s plan to displace Gaza’s residents.”
Despite U.S. and Israeli threats to resume the war, Hamas called Trump’s bluff and continued to push mediators to exert pressure on Israel to adhere to the ceasefire terms.
According to Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan in an interview with Al Araby TV on Friday, pressure from mediators has compelled Israel to abide by the terms of the ceasefire. Hamdan said that Hamas would be moving forward with releasing the next batch of Israeli captives on Saturday as originally scheduled and that Hamas will be ready to start negotiations regarding the second phase of the ceasefire next Monday.
“In light of the Cairo talks that the movement’s delegation conducted with the Egyptians, there is positivity,” Ismail Radwan said regarding the ongoing negotiations in Cairo, asserting that there are “positive indicators” for the continued implementation of the agreement. “We are keen on the success of the agreement, and we hope that the mediators will pressure the Zionist occupation to continue implementing it until reaching the second and third stages, [which would lead to] the complete cessation of the war and total Zionist withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”
The same genocidal mentality
According to the director of the Gaza Government Media Office, Salama Maarouf, the same mentality that governed Israel’s genocidal conduct throughout the war continues to prevail during the ceasefire, “which tries to deprive the residents of the Gaza Strip of their most basic rights and their minimum requirements for human life.”
“What the Israeli occupation is doing, whether at present or during the 15-month holocaust, is a continuation of the policy of the 17-year siege on Gaza,” Maarouf told Mondoweiss. “The occupation has not changed its methods in dealing with Gaza.”
Regarding the entry of “caravans” — mobile homes — into Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal, Maarouf told Mondoweiss on Thursday that “not a single one” has entered, adding that “out of the 200,000 tents that were supposed to enter, only about 73,000 have been sent — about 40 percent of the need.”
“Heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove the rubble have not entered,” Maarouf continued. “Neither have generators to provide electricity for shelters, nor solar panels or batteries.”
Israeli forces have killed 93 Palestinians in Gaza by direct fire and injured over 800 others since the signing of the ceasefire agreement, says the Gaza Government Media Office.
According to the ceasefire agreement, Maarouf said that Israel was supposed to let in 50 trucks of fuel per day. “But fuel arrives in quantities far below what was agreed upon. These and other issues, such as medical equipment and supplies needed by the Ministry of Health…reflect the occupation’s evasion of its obligations under the [ceasefire agreement’s] humanitarian protocol.”
Beyond delaying or preventing the delivery of aid, Maarouf says that Israeli forces have killed 93 Palestinians in Gaza by direct fire and injured over 800 people since the signing of the agreement.
But the most dangerous aspect of Israel’s ongoing conduct, according to Maarouf, is its “killing through thirst and disease,” which Israeli authorities achieve by “preventing the repair of the water network and any operations to restore and rehabilitate hospitals.”
“It is killing by withholding medicine, electricity, and shelter,” Maarouf said.
According to Ismail Radwan, Israel’s conduct throughout the ceasefire has effectively been a continuation of its war of extermination by other means. “With American support, the Zionist occupation is trying to achieve through this siege what it could not achieve through its criminal war of extermination,” the Hamas leader told Mondoweiss. “And so we say: the occupation will not achieve — whether through U.S. support, Trump’s plan [for Gaza], or the siege — what it was not able to achieve through its destructive criminal war.”
According to Ismail Radwan, Israel’s conduct throughout the ceasefire has effectively been a continuation of its war of extermination by other means. “With American support, the Zionist occupation is trying to achieve through this siege what it could not achieve through its criminal war of extermination,” the Hamas leader told Mondoweiss. “And so we say: the occupation will not achieve — whether through U.S. support, Trump’s plan [for Gaza], or the siege — what it was not able to achieve through its destructive criminal war.”
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union
