Hamas: No Hostage Exchange Until "Aggression Against Gaza Stops"

Reuters carrying comments from a Hamas official stating that, "there will be no negotiations or exchange of detainees until the aggression against Gaza stops."

• Official continues: "We hold [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu fully responsible for the lives of Israeli hostages and for obstructing the completion of the exchange deal."
• The comments come as both Israel and Hamas blame the other for violating the terms of a truce agreement which collapsed last week, and fighting resumes in the south of the Gaza Strip.
• The comments raise more doubts that the truce, which provided for the exchange of 110 hostages, including 81 Israeli citizens, in return for the release of around 240 detained Palestinians, can be revived.
• White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters yesterday: "Right now, Hamas is refusing to release civilian women who should have been part of the agreement. And it is that refusal by Hamas that has caused the end of the hostage agreement and therefore the end of the pause in hostilities."
• Israeli army Chief of General Staff, Herzi Halevi says: “Sixty days after the war began our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip... We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south.”
• The Washington Post estimates that around 122 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza but US officials note that they don't have precise figures.