Hamas has refused to take part in negotiations for a hostage release-ceasefire deal for the past several weeks, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday.
During the Wednesday press briefing, a reporter asked Miller if Israel’s war with Hezbollah had forced discussion of a ceasefire in Gaza from the table or if such talks were yet ongoing.
“It’s not that it’s been overtaken by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It’s that Hamas has, again, refused to engage,” Miller replied, adding that Hamas’s refusals to engage predate the events of the last week and a half, during which Israel has launched a ground operation in Lebanon and attacked Hezbollah’s leadership, infrastructure, and fighters.
‘Hamas has refused to engage’
According to the State Department spokesperson, despite the mediators’ attempt to come up with the “soundings of what might be agreeable” for whatever reason, “Hamas has refused to engage.”
Miller’s comments echo similar ones he made the day before.
On Tuesday, after a reporter asked Miller during a press briefing about the status of the ceasefire talks the US has been pushing for in Gaza and Lebanon, Miller noted that Hamas had refused to partake in the discussions.
“Hamas has been unwilling to come to the table to engage the past several weeks,” Miller said. “So yes, it’s true that we have not been able to advance these ceasefire talks, but it’s not because of any lack of effort by the United States or our partners in the region. It’s because the terrorist organization that Iran has sponsored for years and years and years has refused to come to the table.”
He added the Gaza-based terrorist organization had stopped engaging with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
He also said that Israel would have to make difficult decisions regarding the deal, but that “right now and for the past few weeks, it’s been Hamas being unwilling to engage in any meaningful way with the mediators that has kept us from moving towards an agreement.”
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