A spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that Hamas has not responded to a plan that has been presented for a truce with Israel in Gaza and an exchange of hostages and detainees.
“Mediators have not yet received a response from the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) regarding the latest proposal,” Majed al-Ansari told Qatar’s state news agency.
Ansari clarified that mediation attempts were still in progress, stating that Hamas has “indicated that it is still studying the proposal”.
Months of negotiations have been spent by Qatar, the US, and Egypt working out the specifics of a Gaza ceasefire.
But there hasn’t been a lull in the conflict since a seven-day stoppage that started in November and resulted in the freeing of over 100 captives.
US President Joe Biden stated last week that Israel was presenting a fresh three-stage roadmap in an effort to reopen negotiations.
Egypt on Thursday said it had received encouraging signals from Hamas over a potential deal with Israel, according to state-linked Al-Qahera News, citing a high-level source.
The comments came a day after meetings began between Hamas representatives, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Doha.
But Beirut-based senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan on Thursday cast doubt on the substance of the framework described by the US president.
“There is no proposal — they are just words said by Biden in a speech,” he said.
“So far, the Americans have not presented anything documented or written that commits them to what Biden said in his speech,” he added.
Additionally on Thursday, Brett McGurk, Biden’s principal Middle East advisor, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met in Cairo.
