‘The negotiations for the second phase of the deal have begun and we are concerned and interested in the current phase,’ Hamas’s spokesman said

i24NEWS

i24NEWS

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A picture taken on August 11, 2014 in Beit Lahia in Gaza Strip shows a donkey cart in front of the destroyed Nada Towers as Palestinians return to the area to inspect what remains of their homes during a 72-hour ceasefire observed in the Gaza Strip
A picture taken on August 11, 2014 in Beit Lahia in Gaza Strip shows a donkey cart in front of the destroyed Nada Towers as Palestinians return to the area to inspect what remains of their homes during a 72-hour ceasefire observed in the Gaza StripMahmud Hams (AFP)

Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanua said on Tuesday that the negotiations for the second phase of the hostage release and ceasefire deal have begun with Israel, through intermediaries Qatar, Egypt, and the US.

“The negotiations for the second phase of the deal have begun and we are concerned and interested in the current phase,” he said in a written statement.

The second phase of contacts and negotiations has begun, and we are concerned and interested in the current phase in sheltering, relief and reconstruction for our people in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Qanua blamed Israel for “disrupting the humanitarian protocol in the ceasefire agreement,” accusing the “occupation” of “being evasive and procrastinating in implementing it.”

He praised the terrorist attack on the Tayasir checkpoint in the West Bank, which killed two Israeli reservists. “The Tayasir checkpoint operation east of Tubas comes in response to the escalating aggression in the West Bank and the right of our people to defend themselves,” he said.

“The absence of accountability for the occupation and international silence encourages the occupation to commit a war of extermination in the West Bank similar to Gaza”