Hamas calls for help as Israel rejects truce deal
Hamas has appealed to the United Nations and the international community to intervene after Israel rejected its ceasefire offer and threatened to escalate military operations in Gaza, including further annexing the West Bank.
In a statement on Wednesday, the group reiterated its readiness to accept a comprehensive Gaza ceasefire and release all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, Al Jazeera reported.
Hamas also slammed Israel for committing "horrific war crimes "following reports of strikes wiping out entire families in Gaza City, and with more people, including children, dying of starvation.
However, a statement published by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said this was unfortunately "more spin by Hamas that has nothing new".
Abdul Wahed Jalal Nori, a lecturer in the Department of Fundamental and Inter-Disciplinary Studies at International Islamic University Malaysia, told China Daily that by appealing to the UN, Hamas underscores that it is Israel, not them, undermining prospects for stability and exploiting international silence to entrench occupation under the guise of "self-defense".
"What we are witnessing is not a genuine search for peace but a strategy of perpetual delay," said Abdul Wahed.
On Wednesday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unveiled a proposal to annex 82 percent of the West Bank, drawing criticism within Israel and its Arab neighbors.
In a post on X, Aida Touma-Sliman, a Palestinian Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, condemned Smotrich's annexation map.
"It seeks to erase an entire people by redrawing borders with brutality and arrogance, turning the West Bank into fragmented prisons with no geographic continuity under Israeli sovereignty," said Touma-Sliman.
Israel's refusal to accept a ceasefire deal has also begun to frustrate its Arab neighbors and peace negotiators.
In a statement published on Wednesday, Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi condemned in the strongest terms "the dangerous and suspicious calls made by a minister in the government of the Israeli occupation forces, which aim to deepen settlement and annex the occupied West Bank".
He said these inflammatory calls "confirm the occupation's continuous and systematic approach of destabilizing security and stability in the region", reflecting its insistence on undermining peace opportunities and its blatant defiance of international conventions, as well as its continued violation of all laws and norms.
Albudaiwi also called on the international community to take immediate deterrent measures "to stop these inflammatory calls and dangerous practices by the Israeli occupation forces".
