Joe Biden’s optimism about an imminent Israel-Hamas ceasefire is just a bid to keep hostile powers calm and there have been “no improvements”, a spokesman for the militant group has told Sky News.
The US president told reporters on Friday he was “optimistic” and there are “just a couple more issues” that US, Qatari, and Egyptian negotiators have to resolve between the two sides.
But speaking to Sky News’ special correspondent Alex Crawford, Hamas’s spokesman in Lebanon Dr Ahmad Abdulhadi said this was “not true”.
Hamas spokesman in Lebanon Dr Ahmad Abdulhadi speaks to Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford
“The Biden administration is trying to show that the environment is positive. But the first round showed there are no improvements,” he said.
“The mediators told us that the disagreed points haven’t been solved and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu added more conditions on it and made it even more complicated.”
He said Mr Biden’s claims were just to “keep everything sounding positive in the media” and “keep the Axis of Resistance calm and to stop it responding to the assassination and not slip into a regional war”.
The Axis of Resistance refers to the Iranian-led alliance between various Islamist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
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Israel is believed to have killed Hamas’s chief political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran last month, in what the group described as a “treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said it is “cautiously optimistic” about hopes of a ceasefire on Saturday.
They added that it hopes heavy pressure on Hamas from the US and others will ease its stance on the American proposal and allow for a breakthrough.
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The two descriptions of the negotiations come amid rising tensions in the region and as fresh Israeli strikes were reported in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank on Saturday.
In Gaza, a strike that hit a house and an adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people in Zawaida killed at least 18 people, including a family of 15 members, on Saturday morning, according to hospital authorities.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry reported that at least 10 people, including a mother and her two children, were killed and five others wounded after an Israeli strike hit a residential building in the southern city of Nabatieh early on Saturday.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it is verifying the report into the Gaza fatalities and claimed it was targeting a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Lebanon, adding that it also hit several other “military structures” it deemed a threat in the south of the country.
Israeli Army Radio also confirmed four people were killed in an airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday.
Meanwhile, families of the remaining 115 hostages still missing inside Gaza gathered at a protest in Tel-Aviv, with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak calling for his resignation over the current hostage deal.
A protest in support of the 115 remaining Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
Hamas comments should be taken ‘very seriously’
Dr Abdulhadi’s comments need to be taken “very seriously”, Crawford says.
She adds that if one side is claiming the other is being “deceptive and manipulative” it “doesn’t seem there’s much room for manoeuvre”.
By contrast, in a joint statement, the US, Qatar and Egypt said Washington had presented a new proposal that builds on points of agreement from the past week, closing gaps in a way that could allow rapid implementation of a deal.
Two days of talks wrapped up in Qatar on Friday night and will reconvene in Cairo next week, with mediators continuing to work on the proposal in the meantime, the statement added.
“The path is now set for that outcome, saving lives, bringing relief to the people of Gaza, and de-escalating regional tensions,” the US, Qatar an Egypt said in the statement.
A statement from the UK, France, Italy, and Germany echoed Mr Biden’s optimism.
“We welcome the fact that technical work will continue over the coming days, including on both the humanitarian provisions and the specific arrangements relating to hostages and detainees,” a statement from the four foreign ministries said.
Israel issued a vague statement saying it appreciated the mediators’ efforts, while a previous statement from Hamas did not sound enthusiastic about the latest offer.
Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday that 40,074 people have been killed by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in the wake of the 7 October attack, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed.