Hamas denied it’s pulling out of cease-fire talks a day after an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip aimed at killing two top officials of the militant group left at least 90 people dead and 300 injured.
Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, described as “baseless” a report that the group will quit the talks. Israel’s latest “escalation” had been engineered to “block the way to reaching an agreement,” he added in a brief statement.
Earlier, an official was quoted as saying that Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh had told international mediators Qatar and Egypt that the organization would halt negotiations due to Israel’s "lack of seriousness, continued policy of procrastination and obstruction, and the ongoing massacres against unarmed civilians.”