DOHA, Qatar (AP) — A senior Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group has lost confidence in the ability of the United States to broker a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of a new round of talks scheduled for this week amid growing pressure to end the war. War with Israel 10 months ago.
Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that Hamas would only participate if the talks focused on implementing the peace plan. Detailed proposal by US President Joe Biden In May and was internationally approved.
The US referred to it as an Israeli proposal and Hamas agreed in principle, but Israel said Biden’s speech was not entirely consistent with the proposal itself. Both sides later proposed changes, leading each side to accuse the other of block the deal.
Hamas has been particularly resistant to Israel’s demands to maintain a permanent military presence in two strategic areas of Gaza after any ceasefire, conditions that have only been announced in recent weeks.
“We told the mediators that any meeting should be based on talking about implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines, not negotiating something new, otherwise Hamas has no reason to participate,” said Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, which includes the movement’s top political leaders and sets its policies.
It was not clear late Wednesday whether Hamas would attend the talks, which begin Thursday.
Hamdan spoke amid a new push to end the war that erupted after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages in Gaza. Israel responded with devastating bombardment and a ground invasion that killed some 40,000 Palestinians and destroyed vast swaths of land.
there Now the concerns This conflict could ignite a wider fire.
In an hour-long interview, Hamdan accused Israel of not engaging in good faith and said the group did not believe the United States was able or willing to pressure Israel into a deal.
Hamdan claimed that Israel “will either send a non-voting delegation (to the negotiations) or change delegations from one round to another so that we start over, or it has imposed new conditions.”
Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the claim, but Israel has denied sabotaging the talks and accused Hamas of doing so.
During the interview, Hamdan provided copies of several iterations of the ceasefire proposal and the group’s written responses. A regional official familiar with the talks confirmed that the documents were authentic. The official offered the assessment on condition of anonymity in order to share nonpublic information.
The documents show that Hamas tried at several points to add additional guarantors — including Russia, Turkey and the United Nations — but Israel’s responses always included only the current mediators, the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
In a statement Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister’s office said some of the changes it had requested were merely “clarifications” to add details, such as clauses on how Palestinians would return to northern Gaza, how many hostages would be released in specific stages, and whether Israel could veto which Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages. The office accused Hamas of requesting 29 amendments to the proposal.
“The truth is that Hamas is the one preventing the release of our hostages, and it is Hamas that continues to oppose the plan,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month.
But Hamdan claimed that Hamas had more than once accepted, in whole or in part, a proposal presented to it by mediators, only for Israel to immediately reject it, ignore it, or launch major new military operations in the following days.
On one occasion, one day after Hamas accepted the ceasefire proposal, Israel announced Launch a new process In Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Israel said the proposal was still far from its demands.
Hamdan said that CIA Director William Burns informed Hamas through mediators at the time that Israel would agree to the deal.
But he said, “The Americans could not convince the Israelis. I think they did not put any pressure on the Israelis.”
When asked about Hamas’s concerns about the US role, US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said: “Well, the United States does not believe that Hamas is an honest broker.”
Regarding whether Hamas will attend the talks, Patel said that Qatari representatives had assured them that they would attend.
“We fully expect these talks to progress as they should. Our view is that all negotiators should return to the negotiating table,” Patel said.
Negotiations have taken on new importance as the war threatens to ignite a regional conflict.
Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are considering retaliatory strikes against Israel after the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail HaniyehIsrael has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. Israel has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the explosion that killed Haniyeh.
After a brief truce in November that saw the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, several rounds of ceasefire talks have collapsed. About 110 prisoners remain in Gaza, and about a third of them are believed to be dead.
Hamdan accused Israel of escalating its attacks on Hamas leaders after the group initially agreed to the latest proposal put forward by mediators.
Israel said the July 13 operation in Gaza resulted in the deaths of Mohammed Daifthe shadowy leader of Hamas’s military wing. Local health officials said more than 90 others were also killed.
Hamdan insisted that the guest was alive.
Two weeks later, Haniyeh was killed, and Hamas and Iran blamed Israel. Hamas then renamed itself Yahya SinwarHamas appointed Ismail Haniyeh, who was considered a more moderate figure, as head of the Hamas political bureau in Gaza, and held him responsible for the October 7 attack.
Hamdan acknowledged “some difficulties” and delays in communicating with Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding deep in the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip. But Hamdan insisted that this did not pose a major obstacle to the negotiations.
The most complicated point in the talks remains whether and how the temporary ceasefire will become permanent.
Israel has been wary of proposals to extend the initial truce as long as negotiations on a permanent agreement continue. Israel appears to fear that Hamas will continue fruitless negotiations indefinitely.
Hamas said it was concerned that Israel would resume the war once the more vulnerable hostages were returned, a scenario reflected in some of Netanyahu’s statements. Recent Comments.
All versions of Hamdan’s ceasefire proposal stipulate a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in the second phase of the agreement.
But recently, officials familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that Israel Make new demands Hamas wants to maintain its presence in a strip of land on the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphi Corridor, as well as along a highway that runs across the width of the Strip, separating southern Gaza from northern Gaza. Hamas insists on a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Hamdan said the group has not yet received the new terms in writing.
Hamdan acknowledged that the Palestinians had suffered greatly in the war and were eager for a ceasefire, but insisted that the group could not simply give up its demands.
“A ceasefire is one thing, and surrender is another,” he added.
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Associated Press’s Sami Magdy in Cairo, Sarah Eldeeb in Beirut, David Klepper in Washington and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war on https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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