Beirut, June 11 (RHC)-- Israel’s recent attack on the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip was intended to block any ceasefire agreement, says the political bureau chief of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday Washington’s role in the attack made the administration of President Joe Biden “no less criminal” than Israeli leaders.  Israeli forces launched the raid in broad daylight on Saturday.  The regime claimed the strike targeted military infrastructure in the camp as part of a "rescue operation."

But witnesses and journalists on the ground say Israel bombed residential buildings, leading to higher casualties.  Nearly 300 Palestinians were killed and over 700 wounded the Israeli regime’s latest act of aggression.

Haniyeh also said Benny Gantz and the commander of the Israeli military’s Gaza Division Gadi Eiskenot had resigned from the war cabinet in order to "jump off the boat... before it sinks."

Israel’s political system is on the brink of "collapse," Haniyeh stated.  The Hamas official also said Gantz, perceived as an alternative to Benjamin Netanyahu, is no different from the current prime minister.  “Both are murderers seeking destruction.”

Gantz quit the cabinet despite pleas from Netanyahu. He had given Netanyahu a June 8 deadline to present a plan for post Gaza war.  Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld has also already tendered his resignation, citing his failure to prevent Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7th.  Two more Israeli ministers also resigned after Gantz stepped down.

Separately, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called on the US administration to pressure the regime to stop the genocide in Gaza.  “We call upon the U.S. administration to put pressure on the occupation to stop the war on Gaza and the Hamas movement is ready to deal positively with any initiative that secures an end to the war.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Egypt as part of a West Asia tour to push for the recent U.S. proposal for truce in Gaza. Biden says the three-phase proposal had been presented by Israel.

However, Tel Aviv has not fully endorsed it.  Hamas says it has not received concrete proposals that could lead to a sustainable ceasefire agreement.

With the presidential election around the corner in the United States, the Biden administration is under public pressure from inside and outside to stop supporting Israel and the genocide in the Gaza Strip.