By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2025-01-07 18:30:05 | Updated at 2025-01-12 23:27:16
5 days ago
Hamas has threatened to prosecute US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his alleged role as “a partner in the war of extermination” in Gaza after the official blamed the terror group for the failures in reaching a cease-fire agreement.
Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’ politburo, slammed Blinken after the Secretary of State’s weekend interview with The New York Times, where he said the terrorists were at fault for the ongoing war that has decimated Gaza and kept 97 hostages in captivity for more than 450 days.
“His statements are misleading and we do not trust them, and his partnership in the crimes against our people will be pursued legally,” Hamadan said Tuesday at a news conference in Algeria, according to The Times of Israel.
Hamdan denied that Hamas was to blame for the repeated breakdown in negotiations, claiming Palestinians can only rely on force to end the war.
“We are determined to stop the aggression and for the enemy to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and for relief and reconstruction to be without Israeli conditions,” he added.
The Hamas political official repeatedly targeted Blinken last year as a “problem” to the ongoing negotiations, with the Secretary of State’s weekend comments appearing to be the final straw.
Speaking with the Times on Saturday, Blinken accused Hamas of constantly backing out of the cease-fire negotiations to end the war that Hamas started when it invaded Israel on Oct. 7 and killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251 others.
“What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded,” Blinken pointed out. “Israel, on various occasions, has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza.
“Where is the world? Where is the world saying, Yeah, do that! End this! Stop the suffering of people that you brought on!” Blinken said of the apparent one-sided outrage over the war and its casualties.
Hamas has repeatedly rejected any and all cease-fire agreements presented by mediators as the terror group stands behind the demand that no hostages are to be released until Israel agrees to a permanent end to the war and withdrawal from Gaza, which the Jewish state has said is a non-starter.
Israel has maintained that it will not end the war until all the hostages are free and Hamas is completely dismantled.
Along with threatening legal action against Blinken, Hamdan took a jab at President-elect Donald Trump, who had warned that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages weren’t freed before his inauguration on Jan. 20.
“I think the US president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements,” Hamdan said.
