Gaza ceasefire talks produced no result: Hamas

In his words, US President Joe Biden’s optimism about the outcome of the talks in Qatar do not reflect the true situation.

“The Biden administration is trying to show that the environment is positive. But the first round showed there are no improvements,” he stated.

“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,” the Hamas spokesman continued.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan has also told Al Jazeera “everyone understands” now that Netanyahu and his government are not willing to achieve a ceasefire deal.

“The Israelis, in the two-day negotiations, rejected the paper, introduced by the Americans on June 24 based on Biden’s initiative, the Security Council resolution, and also responsible for the Israeli points,” he said.

“They rejected it even after Hamas accepted that. After the two-day negotiations, they stand against the paper and they have new ideas that were not discussed before,” he added.

“We have to remember … what the army minister in Israel said, which was the main obstacle to achieving an agreement, is Netanyahu. He was, and is, the obstacle.”

Biden on Friday said “we are closer than we’ve ever been” to a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip “but we’re not there yet”, as talks in the region paused until next week.

He told reporters that although he’s “optimistic” about the prospect of a deal being agreed on, nothing is guaranteed.

Gaza ceasefire negotiations in Doha paused on Friday with negotiators to meet again next week seeking an agreement to end the war in the blockaded territory.

In a joint statement, the US, Qatar and Egypt announced Washington had presented a new proposal that built on points of agreement over the past week, closing gaps in a way that could allow rapid implementation of a deal.

Mediators would keep working on the proposal in coming days, they added.

The current round of talks started on Thursday amid growing fears of a regional war after Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut and Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.

The overall death toll from the Israeli campaign of death, destruction and genocide in Gaza has surpassed the grim milestone of 40,000, the Gaza Health Ministry announced on Thursday.