World

US Hopes Hamas Will Return to Ceasefire Negotiations With Israel

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Washington hopes that Hamas is still willing to engage in truce negotiations with Israel given the fact that the Jewish state had agreed to the previously proposed deal, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday.
Sputnik
On Wednesday, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that both Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas had stopped participating in ceasefire negotiations about a month ago.
"We hope now that there is a party on the other side [in Hamas] that is willing to engage in conversations [on ceasefire]," Miller said.
There was a ceasefire agreement that the Israeli party had agreed on, the official added.
"Israel has agreed to a ceasefire proposal we had put on a table and Hamas didn’t accept it. They came back with provisions that they wanted to change … We had bridge differences between the two parties. Hamas walked away. So I can’t tell you what the government of Israel is going to do," Miller said.
Washington also hopes it is in Israel’s interest to find a mutually acceptable agreement to put an end to the ongoing hostilities, Miller added.
In September, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said it was continuing efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian enclave.
World
Hamas Planned to Attack Israel in Fall of 2022 - Reports
A representative of the Hamas political leadership in Lebanon, Ayman Shanaa, previously told Sputnik that the leadership saw no point in negotiations on the exchange of prisoners until a complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. He noted that the movement was ready for a ceasefire, but due to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the talks were fruitless.
Discuss