Hamas has welcomed the UN Security Council’s earlier adoption of a resolution that has backed a plan aimed at bringing about a ceasefire in the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian resistance movement voiced its approval of the resolution in a press statement on Monday, hours after the 15-member council voted overwhelmingly in its favor.
Hamas said it “welcomes what is included in the Security Council resolution that affirmed the permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the complete withdrawal [of the Israeli forces], and the prisoners’ exchange.”
It also said it approved of the plan’s other provisions, namely “the reconstruction [of the Gaza Strip], the return of the displaced to their areas of residence, the rejection of any demographic change or reduction in the area of Gaza, and the delivery of needed aid to our people in the strip.”
The statement expressed “readiness” on the part of the group “to cooperate with the mediators to engage in indirect negotiations on implementing these principles that are consistent with the demands of our people and resistance.“
The regime launched the war last October in response to Al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups, during which some 250 people were taken captive.
The brutal Israeli military onslaught has so far killed upwards of 37,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Egypt and Qatar have been mediating negotiations aimed at conclusion of a ceasefire agreement following one in November, during which Hamas released 105 of the captives that had been seized during Al-Aqsa Storm.
In early May, Hamas agreed to another truce proposal enabling cessation of the Israeli aggression and release of the rest of the captives. The Israeli regime, however, rejected the proposal.