RAFAH (AFP) – A senior Hamas official said on Thursday that United States (US) President Joe Biden’s proposed Gaza ceasefire deal was “just words” and the Palestinian militant group had not received any written commitments related to a truce.
Biden presented last week what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the conflict and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.
But Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Beirut, told AFP: “There is no proposal – they are just words said by Biden in a speech.”
“So far, the Americans have not presented anything documented or written that commits them to what Biden said in his speech,” he said from the Lebanese capital.
Hamdan said Biden “tried to cover up the Israeli rejection” of another deal offered earlier in May, which had been approved by Hamas.
He said Hamas was willing to accept any deal that met his movement’s core demands of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory.
The US has pressed for Hamas to accept the deal and said it was waiting for a response.
“We think this is should be an urgent priority to get this ceasefire over the line, to start to alleviate the suffering that is happening every day in Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington.
“So we would hope for a response from Hamas as soon as possible, and we continue to wait,” he said.
Shortly after Biden unveiled the plan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the roadmap was only “partial”.
The US, along with Qatar and Egypt, have been engaged in months of negotiations over details for a ceasefire in Gaza.
But except for a seven-day pause beginning in November 2023, there has been no break in the fighting.
Israel’s military offensive on Gaza has killed at least 36,654 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
