Hamas and US urge return to Biden's plan in stalled ceasefire talks

The leaders of the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar, countries mediating the negotiations, have called on Israel and Hamas to resume talks on Thursday regarding a ceasefire in the 10-month-long war and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Negotiators are pushing for the talks to end with an agreement.

Israel announced that it would send its negotiators to the meeting. Reuters wrote that Hamas initially reported that it was analysing proposals but now suggests that it will not participate in the new round of talks.

"The movement calls on the mediators to present a plan to implement what was agreed upon by the movement on July 2, 2024, based on Biden’s vision and the UN Security Council resolution," said the evening statement from the ruling Palestinian organisation in the Gaza Strip.

As emphasised, "the mediators should enforce this on the occupation (Israel) instead of pursuing further rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would provide cover for the occupation’s aggression," which only gives Israel time to continue the aggression and "genocide of our people."

The plan presented by Biden at the end of May's three-step ceasefire plan includes, besides a permanent ceasefire, the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, as well as the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. So far, negotiations have hit a deadlock, with both sides accusing each other of setting new conditions and blaming each other for the failure of the talks.

Sunday's statement from Hamas is a negotiation tactic through which this terrorist organisation aims to secure better terms of agreement - commented a senior Israeli official quoted by the Times of Israel portal. He added, "if Hamas doesn’t want to come to the table, we will continue to crush their forces in Gaza."

The U.S. sees in the agreement not only a chance to end the war in the Gaza Strip, which has already claimed nearly 40,000 Palestinian lives but also to broadly calm tensions in the Middle East. The situation in the region is the toughest it has been in months, with growing concerns about a severe escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran and its allies, including the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing diplomatic sources, wrote on Sunday that mediators suggested to both sides that if Thursday's talks do not bring a breakthrough, they will be blamed for the failure of the negotiations.

The newspaper noted that the U.S., which has solely blamed Hamas for the impasse in the talks until now, is growing impatient with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance and fears that he may yield to his far-right coalition partners, who oppose the agreement. It added that the White House would then publicly accuse him of harming the negotiations, portraying him as partly responsible for the failure of the talks.

On the other hand, Egypt and Qatar, which have so far mostly criticised Israel, have also made it clear that they will explicitly criticise Hamas if it sabotages the negotiations, added "Haaretz".