Representatives of the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas condemned the terms of an alleged “bridging proposal” to move it towards a ceasefire with Israel on Monday.
Hamas representatives told various media outlets that the provisions U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that day were a “coup against” a previous Hamas-friendly proposal Israel rejected.
Blinken was in Israel on Monday to discuss what he called the “last opportunity” for an end to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ongoing self-defense operations in Gaza, Hamas’s stronghold territory used to launch the unprecedented October 7 attack on the Israeli homeland. Reaching a ceasefire agreement this week would grant President Joe Biden and his political party a major diplomatic victory to tout during the ongoing Democratic National Convention (DNC).
Blinken did not specify why the current talks are the “last opportunity” for a deal. Pressed by reporters on Monday, he offered only that “intervening events come along that may make things even more difficult if not impossible” if the parties wait longer to hash out an agreement.
Biden himself told reporters on Friday he was more optimistic than in recent months that a ceasefire deal was possible, emphasizing, “I think we’ve got a shot.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken steps out of a vehicle in Tel Aviv as he departs for Egypt on August 20, 2024. Blinken heads to Egypt on August 20 before a stop in Qatar, the two countries brokering negotiations, in what he said may be a “last opportunity” to secure a Gaza truce and hostage release deal in the 10-month Gaza conflict. (KEVIN MOHATT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Blinken nonetheless appeared optimistic on Monday, confirming that the Israeli government had agreed to the “bridging proposal” and stating, “the next important step is for Hamas to say yes and then, in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together to work on clear understandings on implementing the agreement.”
Speaking to reporters on Monday night, President Biden told reporters that “Hamas is now backing away” from any agreement, adding that the deal was nonetheless “still in play.”
Hamas representatives told multiple media outlets that Washington had misrepresented how close both sides were to coming to a ceasefire deal and complained that the current terms of an agreement were too favorable to Israel.
“The Israelis have retreated from issues included in Biden’s proposal,” a Hamas spokesman, Osama Hamdan, told the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “Netanyahu’s talk about agreeing to an updated proposal indicates that the US administration has failed to convince him to accept the previous agreement.”
The “previous agreement” was a deal proposed by the Biden administration in late May that the Israeli government dismissed almost immediately as a non-starter. That deal would have required Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and accept a six-week ceasefire, during which negotiations for a more permanent halt in self-defense operations would begin. The agreement notably did not require Hamas to disarm completely and ignored the Israeli goal of dismantling the terrorist organization to ensure that it could no longer pose a threat to Israeli civilians. It would also allow Hamas to continue governing Gaza.
State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller admitted in June that the deal it presented was “virtually identical” to previous Hamas proposal.
In addition to Israel’s rejection of the agreement, Hamas itself had rejected a deal with the same provisions before Biden presented the May proposal.
In a separate statement from Hamdan’s comments to Al Jazeera, Hamas appeared to tout the deal with provisions it had already rejected as the only true ceasefire agreement – and Blinken’s “bridging proposal” as an aberration from a deal that the parties had allegedly already agreed upon.
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C-SPAN“What was recently presented to the movement constitutes a coup against what the parties reached on July 2, based on Mr Biden’s declaration on May 31 and Security Council Resolution 2735 on June 11,” Hamas claimed, according to the Emirati newspaper The National. “We reaffirm our commitment to what we agreed upon with the mediators on July 2, based on the Biden Declaration and the Security Council resolution, and we call on the mediators to assume their responsibilities and oblige the occupation to accept it.”
Hamas’s clear rejection followed extensive comments by Blinken in Israel in which he appeared to convey that both sides were closer to an agreement that currently appears. Blinken lauded Netanyahu, calling his meeting with the prime minister “very constructive.”
“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal, that he supports it. It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” Blinken explained. “And then the parties, with the help of the mediators – the United States, Egypt, and Qatar – have to come together and complete the process of reaching clear understandings about how they’ll implement the commitments that they’ve made under this agreement.”
“But the next important step is for Hamas to say yes and then, in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together to work on clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Blinken insisted, later reiterating, “what needs to be done to ensure that Hamas comes along, agrees to the bridging proposal, and that everyone then works on finalizing a clear understanding of their commitments to implement the agreement.”
Blinken also, contrary to the Hamas statements, asserted, “the bridging proposal that Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted and we look to Hamas to accept reflects what is in the ceasefire agreement that President Biden put before the world back in May.”
“Is Hamas, is its leadership actually looking out for Palestinian children, women, and men who are suffering at this very moment in Gaza?” the secretary of state asked. “And if it is, it will agree.”
Hamas is a genocidal jihadist terrorist organization that regularly uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, endangering the lives of children in particular by hiding weapons stockpiles and terror tunnels in schools, humanitarian aid offices, and even children’s bedrooms.
Blinken arrived in Egypt on Tuesday to discuss negotiations with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and will head to Qatar, home to Hamas’s “political” offices, following those discussions.
