United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared on Wednesday that a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal is not being accepted by Hamas, as the group has instead offered several changes.
While some of the changes proposed by Hamas are not considered possible, mediators are working to find common ground to put an end to the fighting.
“Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes,” Blinken said. “Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted.”
However, while speaking to pan-Arab Al-Araby TV, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that his group put forward any new ideas, saying that it was Israel that was rejecting the proposals. He then accused the US of going along with the narrative because Israel is its ally.
Still, the U.S. says that the propositions from Hamas were made, and White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that many were minor and “not unanticipated” but that some were more substantial.
The plan proposed to the two warring parties was put forward by US President Joe Biden and accepted in a United Nations Security Council resolution on Monday.
Sullivan says that the current goal for the administration is to stop fighting and come to a resolution that saves lives.
“Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion. Our view is that the time for haggling is over,” Sullivan told reporters.
Hamas is requesting written guarantees from the US on the ceasefire plan, Reuters reported, citing two Egyptian security sources.
Hamas also released a statement on Wednesday saying it was heading into the negotiations with “positivity” but urging the US to put pressure on Israel to accept an agreement that would bring a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, see IDF troops withdraw from the region, reconstruction, and the release of Palestinian prisoners being held by the nation.
The group also said that while US officials have said Israel accepted a ceasefire proposal, they “have not heard any Israeli official confirm this acceptance.”
Under the proposal from Biden, Hamas and Israel would enter a truce, see the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, and bring a permanent end to the war.