A SENIOR Hamas leader, Mahmoud Mardawi, says the Palestinian group will not engage in further discussions with Israel through mediators until Israel releases the 620 Palestinian prisoners supposed to be freed on Saturday.
Israel said it’s delaying the release until it gets assurances that Hamas stops what Israel calls “humiliating” handovers of captives in staged ceremonies.
Palestinian family members who waited all day and night were distraught. “What have the prisoners done? We don’t know what happened. They killed our joy,” said one mother, Najah Zaqqot.
Meanwhile, Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon paid their last respects to Hezbollah’s late leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack in the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut, last September.
The public funeral, delayed for security reasons, began at 1pm local time (11:00 GMT) on Sunday at Beirut’s Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, which has a capacity of about 50,000 people.
The event kicked off with a speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that was read out at the funeral.
Then, the decorated coffins of Nasrallah and his heir apparent Hashem Safieddine – killed in another Israeli air attack a week later were slowly driven into the stadium. Both coffins were draped with yellow clothes – the colour of the Iran-backed group.
At the sight of the coffins, the crowd erupted in cheers and then followed the journey into the stadium in silence.
In a televised speech, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said the group would keep following the path of Nasrallah.
“We will uphold trust and walk on this path, we will uphold your will,” Qassem said referring to Nasrallah, adding: “You are still with us: your… path and struggle live within us” and “I am loyal to the legacy Nasrallah”.
