The Deputy Chairman of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, acknowledged in an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday that Hamas still had capabilities in Rafah, according to a recap of the interview posted to the Hamas Telegram channel.
Al-Hayya led the Hamas delegation in the Cairo ceasefire talks earlier this month, Reuters reported at the time.
“Netanyahu retreated last week from what he had agreed to in the Paris paper, and I say that the occupation today is prolonging the battle with lies and hopes that will not be reached,” Hamas quoted al-Hayya as saying on Monday.
Al-Qassam Brigades still in Rafah
“Sometimes, he says the high price demanded by the movement in exchange for prisoners, and sometimes, he says he wants to dismantle the resistance and what remains of the capabilities of Al-Qassam in Rafah,” he added.
Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades are the military wing of the terror organization.
In recent weeks, Israel has called for a military operation in Rafah in order to destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions there.
Regarding Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, he further told Al Jazeera, according to the Hamas Telegram channel, that “just as the occupation failed to eliminate the resistance’s capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, the central region, and Khan Yunis, the occupation will fail to extend its control over Rafah.”
Al-Hayya added that “Netanyahu is not serious about reaching an agreement that will end the aggression, provide relief to our Palestinian people, and remove the occupation from Gaza after this long aggression, which has exceeded four months until the region returns to the state of calm as it was. He wants to continue the battle for no other goal than to preserve his seat.”
In December, al-Hayya told Al Jazeera that the terror group conditioned the release of the hostages on the end of the Israeli “aggression.”
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