As the United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Egypt and Qatar this week to work on securing a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, the Palestinian militant group accused President Joe Biden and the US of being biased in mediations, asserting that the original deal to end Israeli occupation in Gaza was amended.
Hamas said by shifting the terms, the US is showing a “blind bias” toward Israel and acquiescing to its demands, enabling it to “commit more crimes against defenseless civilians, in pursuit of the goals of exterminating and displacing our people.”
The group maintains that a ceasefire agreement must permanently end the war in Gaza, accusing the United States of “merely buying time for Israel to continue its genocide” by proposing an altered accord.
“The Israelis have retreated from issues included in Biden’s proposal. Netanyahu’s talk about agreeing to an updated proposal indicates that the US administration has failed to convince him to accept the previous agreement,” Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Monday.
Blinken, who is on his ninth regional visit to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began ten months ago, met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi Tuesday before making a brief stop in Qatar, working alongside both countries to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. He said “time is of the essence” to secure an agreement at a press hearing in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday, adding that the US, Egypt, and Qatar will do everything possible to get Hamas on board with the “bridging proposal.” This proposal aims to resolve ongoing disputes between Israel and Hamas in order to minimize the violence in Gaza.
“It’s still in play, but you can’t predict,” Biden said while leaving the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Al Jazeera reported. “Israel says they can work it out … Hamas is now backing away.”
Hamas has since called Biden’s comments “misleading,” stressing that the group is eager to reach a ceasefire deal but the latest proposal contradicts the earlier agreement, meeting Netanyahu’s conditions, which include a refusal of a permanent ceasefire and a complete troop-withdrawal from Gaza, along with him keeping control of the Netzarim Corridor.
According to a statement issued by the Egyptian presidency, El-Sisi warned Blinken the risk of the war expanding regionally. “The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region,” he said.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday night at the tarmac of Doha airport in Qatar, Blinken said the US continues to oppose any “long-term” occupation of Gaza by Israeli forces and that talks have been “very clear on the schedule and location” of Israeli military withdrawals from Gaza.
