The secretary of state said the U.S. would keep pushing Israel and Hamas ‘on an urgent basis’ to reach a deal.

Speaking at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, alongside Qatar’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Mr. Blinken said that “a deal was on the table that was virtually identical” to one that Hamas put forward on May 6.

At some point, he said, “you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not.”

  • @goferking0
    0•12 days ago

    Did you read it?

    But Hamas officials rejected his claim that they had made any changes to their previous stance in May and reiterated their accusation that Israel was blocking a deal. Osama Hamdan, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, accused the top U.S. diplomat of seeing “things through an Israel lens.”

    The cease-fire proposal would halt the fighting in Gaza immediately, and, after the release of some Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, begin talks that could lead to a much longer or even permanent cease-fire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Qatar and Egypt have acted as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas, which do not communicate directly with each other.

    Basem Naim, a Hamas spokesman, said on Wednesday that Hamas’s position remains that the deal must include guarantees of a permanent cease-fire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, among other demands.

    “This new offer includes no changes to our previous response to the offer submitted last May,” he said.