Hamas official: we were asked to be sensitive to Netanyahu's vote

A senior Hamas official, Bassem Naim, said the movement had been pressed by mediators on the Gaza roadmap — the US adviser Jared Kushner among them — to show "sensitivity" towards Benjamin Netanyahu's political position ahead of Israel's coming election.

Speaking in a televised interview, Naim said the message put to the movement was that the Israeli prime minister is going through a delicate period and that this ought to be borne in mind. He rejected it, saying the timing of a deal is not a Palestinian responsibility to manage.

"I am not in a position to pay the price from the bodies and blood and the lives of our people in order to secure the victory of Netanyahu's election," he said.

Naim said the movement remains committed to the roadmap and ready to carry on with it, so that people in Gaza have a chance to rebuild their lives and reach a minimum of calm and stability. He added that Israel has not met the obligations the ceasefire places on it, and attacks have continued across the Strip while the entry of aid stays limited.

The roadmap's public disagreement has been one of sequence: what is given up, when, and against which withdrawal. Being asked to fit that sequence to a campaign calendar is a different order of request, and it measures the pace of a ceasefire against a ballot rather than against what is happening on the ground.