Hamas stated on Wednesday (August 14) that it will not participate in the new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations scheduled to take place in Qatar on Thursday (August 15). This decision has added uncertainty to the urgently needed progress in the Middle East tense situation.
The head of Hamas’s political bureau in Beirut, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen, a Lebanon-based pan-Arab satellite news channel allied with Iran, that Hamas rejected attending the ceasefire talks on Thursday, citing new conditions proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would undermine the negotiations.
Reuters quoted senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri as saying that Hamas supported the proposal received on July 2, based on UN Security Council resolutions and Biden’s speech. Hamas was “prepared to immediately discuss the mechanism to implement this proposal”, but did not want to engage in a new round of negotiations where Israel would introduce “new conditions”.
However, Netanyahu’s office denied the claim of adding “new conditions” to the negotiation proposal in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The US government stated that the indirect negotiations in Doha, the capital of Qatar, are expected to proceed as planned, and a ceasefire agreement is still possible. Nevertheless, they warned that progress in ceasefire negotiations must be made to avoid a larger-scale war.
According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, a mediator is expected to consult with Hamas after the negotiations.
Three senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Iran would only seek direct retaliation against Israel for last month’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Israeli territory if a Gaza ceasefire agreement is reached.
Considering the uncertainty in the Middle East situation, US Secretary of State Blinken has postponed his scheduled Middle East trip set to start on Tuesday (August 13), as reported by Axios.
Netanyahu’s office stated in a release that the Prime Minister had approved and authorized the negotiation delegation to travel to Doha tomorrow (August 15). According to the Israeli Times, Chief Foreign Policy Adviser Ophir Falk would attend the meeting along with Mossad Director David Barnea, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, and IDF hostage rescue mission head Nitzan Alon.
The US government has been mediating the tense situation in the Middle East. President Biden said they “have not given up” on achieving a ceasefire agreement that could potentially avoid a larger conflict.
On August 8, in a joint statement with Egyptian and Qatari leaders, Biden called for both parties to resume emergency discussions on August 15 in Doha or Cairo to resolve all remaining differences and immediately begin implementing the agreement.
The primary objective of the ceasefire agreement is to save the lives of dozens of hostages (including Americans) held by Hamas since October 7 last year in southern Israel, and provide urgent assistance to Gaza Palestinians facing a devastating humanitarian crisis after over ten months of war. It also aims to prevent potential escalated attacks by Iran and its proxies.