Hamas says it will not join ceasefire talks this week

Hamas has said it will not join ceasefire talks this week.

Talks are due to take place on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

However, a Hamas representative in Lebanon told Sky News that delegates from the militant group would no longer be taking part.

In a statement, Ahmad Abdul Hadi said Hamas was not against ceasefire talks “in principle”.

However, he said it would not participate this week because Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not interested in reaching an agreement that ends the aggression completely”.

“Rather he is deceiving and evading and wants to prolong the war, and even expand it at the regional level, and thus he uses negotiations as a cover to continue his aggression against our people and commit more massacres against them.”

The group said it would return to negotiations if there was a “clear commitment” from the Israeli government to approve a ceasefire proposal put forward by Hamas in July.

It accused Israel of setting new conditions and also said it was angered by the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, as well as the recent deadly attack on a school compound in Gaza City.

Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the US are attempting to broker an agreement to end the war.

They have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages captured in its 7 October attack in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and Israel would withdraw from Gaza.

However the latest Hamas statement comes as reports have emerged that US secretary of state Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to the Middle East.

Mr Blinken was due to depart on Tuesday but Axios reported the top diplomat’s travel was delayed over “uncertainty about the situation”.

Earlier in the day, Hamas fired two rockets aimed at Tel Aviv for the first time in months.

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On Monday, US officials had said they expected Thursday’s talks to continue as planned.

A US State Department official has said Qatar will seek to convince Hamas to participate in the peace talks.

“Our partners in Qatar have assured us that they will work to have Hamas represented,” US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

After more than 10 months of fighting, the Palestinian death toll is nearing 40,000 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.