By SCM Staff Writer I Friday, October 10, 2025
NEW YORK — A top leader of the Islamist militant group Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzouk, asserted on Friday that a prisoner exchange with Israel could commence as early as Monday, while simultaneously laying out significant demands for a permanent cessation of hostilities and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Speaking on the ongoing negotiations, Abu Marzouk indicated that the first phase of a potential deal is focused on securing an end to the war and ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid into the beleaguered enclave.
He also emphasized that Hamas is working with mediators to “remove obstacles” to secure the release of numerous high-profile Palestinian leaders held in Israeli prisons.
Among the figures Hamas is demanding be released are Marwan Barghouti, a leader in the rival Fatah movement, Ahmed Saadat, and Abbas Al-Sayyed. Abu Marzouk stated that Israel has so far “refused” to release these prominent leaders.
Israeli Withdrawal and Future Security
A major point of contention, according to the Hamas official, is Israel’s current troop deployment within Gaza.
Abu Marzouk claimed that despite withdrawing to the “yellow line,” Israeli forces still control 53% of the Gaza Strip’s area.
”We will not accept in the future the occupation remaining in the positions it currently controls,” Abu Marzouk warned, challenging the Israeli-defined withdrawal lines as “inaccurate and were drawn randomly.”
He also specifically addressed the continued Israeli presence at the Philadelphia Line, a border corridor along the Gaza-Egypt frontier, arguing that it “isolates Gaza from its Arab and Egyptian depth.”
Looking ahead to the next phases of the post-war planning, the Hamas leader suggested discussions would turn to the “national project” and examining the possible presence of peacekeeping forces in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Abu Marzouk struck a defiant note on the issue of Palestinian resistance, stating that no one “dares to strip the Palestinian people of their weapons, which are a legal and legitimate option under the occupation.”
He maintained that the steadfastness of the Palestinian people had “thwarted all the occupation’s plans and goals.”
The official also sought to counter the Israeli government’s narrative regarding the negotiations, arguing that the “prisoner card” is merely a pretext Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “uses to justify continuing the war on Gaza.”
He suggested that Hamas’s agreement to a war-ending deal in exchange for the release of prisoners makes it difficult for Netanyahu “to resume the war again.”
He stressed that Hamas will not act unilaterally, stating that the future fate of the Palestinian people is a matter of “collective and national consensus.”
