Hamas says Israel continues to sabotage negotiations

The following statement was made by Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi via Twitter and published by Resistance News Network on June 1, 2025.

After weeks of serious and responsible negotiations with the U.S. envoy, we reached an acceptable formula that aligns with the minimum national goals and the requirements for protecting our people. The envoy agreed to present it to the “israeli” side. However, the occupation rejected the paper and asked the Americans to present [the latest proposal] to us as a final, non-negotiable proposal. Note that the paper is laden with catastrophic flaws that even exceed the shortcomings of previous “israeli” proposals:

• It did not guarantee a real withdrawal from the territories.
• It did not guarantee a comprehensive cessation of hostilities at any stage.
• It did not guarantee a sustainable flow of humanitarian aid.
• It did not guarantee the implementation of any commitment beyond the seventh day, the day on which the “israeli” captives were supposed to be handed over. It then leaves what comes after that at the mercy of “israeli” assessments and intentions, with no guarantees.

In other words: “Take what we have, and we’ll see later whether we will fulfill our commitments.”

Despite this, our position was: “Yes, but … “

We said “yes” in principle, but we rejected the understandings as a legitimacy for the continuation of genocide and starvation or a gateway to political and security fraud.

We demanded amendments to the paragraphs that do not guarantee a halt to the killing, do not open the way for sustainable relief and return from displacement sites and do not impose clear obligations on the occupation to withdraw and cease fire.

Ironically, these amendments are completely identical to what was agreed upon, word for word, with the U.S. mediator over the past weeks.

The result — unfortunately:

Instead of supporting the original consensus paper, the U.S. position described our response as a “step backward” and unacceptable, even though they know it is a strict adherence to what was agreed upon with them.

Our message to all relevant parties and to the entire world:

We are not the party that sabotages efforts or evades.

We offered a responsible agreement and amended it to protect our people from genocide. We demand an end to the aggression, the provision of aid, the return of displaced persons and the freedom of prisoners.

What we are asking for are not political conditions but a minimum of human dignity.

Whoever truly wants to stop the war should pressure those who are killing, starving and besieging, not those who are defending their people and are merely asking for guarantees of compliance.

We will continue to make every effort to reach an agreement that leads to the withdrawal of the army and ends the war, starvation and genocide.