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** Why Hamas Rejected Witkoff's Ceasefire Plan ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • June 4, 2025 at 5:30 am
* The leaders of the Iran-backed Hamas terror group do not seem to be in a rush to end the war with Israel: after all, they and their family members are not living in the Gaza Strip...
* Hamas's political leaders, billionaires funded by Iran's mullahs and the rulers of Qatar, live in several Arab and Islamic countries, including Qatar, Turkey, Algeria and Lebanon. They and their family members lead luxurious lives in these countries and do not have to worry about lack of food or medicine.
* Hamas leaders are in no rush to accept any deal because, unlike most of the residents of the Gaza Strip, they do not have to stand in line and risk being shot by Hamas terrorists for trying to receive food from a humanitarian organization.
* Moreover, the Hamas leadership will never accept any ceasefire without prior permission from the Iranian regime. The mullahs in Tehran also appear in no rush to end the war against Israel. They want the war to continue: it distracts attention from Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
* For [Hamas's leaders], the No. 1 priority is to make sure that Hamas remains in power the day after the war
* For Hamas, "the end" (eliminating Israel) justifies "the means" (sacrificing Palestinians as "martyrs" in the jihad against Israel).
* Hamas staying in power would be great news for the Iranian regime, jihadis, and Islamist terror groups who consider the US the "Great Satan," and are committed to killing Americans, Christians, Jews and all other "infidels."

The leaders of Hamas do not seem to be in a rush to end the war with Israel: after all, they and their family members are not living in the Gaza Strip. Hamas's political leaders, billionaires funded by Iran and Qatar, live luxurious lives in several Arab and Islamic countries, including Qatar, Turkey, Algeria and Lebanon. They and their family members do not have to worry about lack of food or medicine. Pictured: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (then prime minister) poses beside Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal (center) and the late Ismail Haniyeh, in Ankara, Turkey on June 18, 2013. (Image source: Turkish Prime Minister Press Office/Yasin Bulbul/AFP via Getty Images)

The leaders of the Iran-backed Hamas terror group do not seem to be in a rush to end the war with Israel: after all, they and their family members are not living in the Gaza Strip, which has been turned into a war zone over the past 20 months.

Hamas's political leaders, billionaires funded by Iran's mullahs and the rulers of Qatar, live in several Arab and Islamic countries, including Qatar, Turkey, Algeria and Lebanon. They and their family members lead luxurious lives in these countries and do not have to worry about lack of food or medicine.

Most of Hamas's military commanders in the Gaza Strip have been hiding in tunnels since the beginning of the war, triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion of Israel. Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas's military commander, was recently killed in an Israeli airstrike, together with senior officials of the group, while he was hiding in a tunnel beneath a hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

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