Hamas rejects Joe Biden's optimism that Gaza ceasefire is closer as 'an illusion' after President says 'we are closer than we have ever been'
A Hamas spokesperson has called US President Joe Biden's recent optimism regarding progress on an Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal an 'illusion'.
After two days of US-backed in Qatar discussions about the ten-month conflict between Hamas and Israel, Biden said 'We are much closer than we've ever been' later adding: 'I don't want to jinx anything.
'We may have something,' he continued at the time, 'But we're not there. We're much, much closer than we were three days ago.'
However - according to the BBC - a senior Hamas official has come forward with claims that there no advancements in talks and alleged they were 'selling illusions'.
The Israeli military launched a campaign against Hamas in Gaza following October 7 which saw Hamas gunmen cross the Israeli border and kill 1,200 people, among the victims were children, the elderly as well as 364 attendees at Nova music festival.
A Hamas spokesperson has called US President Joe Biden 's recent optimism regarding progress on an Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal an 'illusion' (Pictured: a Palestinian among the rubble of an Israeli airstrike)
After two days of US-backed in Qatar discussions about the ten-month conflict between Hamas and Israel , Joe Biden (Pictured) said 'We are much closer than we've ever been'
However Dr Ahmad Abdulhadi, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, also told claims of progress were 'not true
According to the Hamas-run healthy ministry, over 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
Israel stated it 'appreciates the efforts of the US and the mediators to dissuade Hamas from its refusal to a hostage release deal'.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said its negotiating team has expressed ‘cautious optimism’ on the possibility of advancing a deal on hostages in
A temporary truce in November, saw Hamas release 105 hostages in return for some 240 Palestinian protestors and a week-long ceasefire.
Israel claims Hamas have 111 hostages, with 39 believed to be dead.
Dr Ahmad Abdulhadi, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, also told Sky News claims of progress were 'not true'.
'The Biden administration is trying to show that the environment is positive. But the first round showed there are no improvements,' eh
'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 alleged that the US President's most recent statements were to keep 'everything sounding positive' and to stop a retaliation from the Axis of Resistance following the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh last month.
The Axis of Resistance is an Iranian-led military coalition between several Islamist groups - including Hamas - according to Sky.
Hamas gunmen went across the Israeli border and killed 1,200 on October 7, among the victims were children, the elderly as well as 364 attendees at Nova music festival (pictured: items left scattered around the Supernova Music Festival site)
Palestinians carry a casualty at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a shelter housing displaced people today
A Palestinian mourns a relative killed in an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict
The stakes have risen significantly since the killings of Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr a top operations chief of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Their deaths led to vows of vengeance from Hezbollah, Iran and other Tehran-backed groups in the region which blamed Israel, according to AFP.
In an effort to avert a broader conflict, Western and Arab diplomats have been shuttling around the Middle East to push for a Gaza deal which they say could help avert a wider regional conflagration.
A recent statement form Qatar, US and Egypt said they had put forward a proposal for a ceasefire as well as a deal, which would see hostages exchanged in a bid to 'narrow the gaps' between the two sides.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed back to the region this weekend in a bid to help seal a deal.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy urged all parties to 'engage positively and flexibly' in the negotiations.
'We underline the importance of avoiding any escalatory action in the region which would undermine the prospect for peace,' they said, according to AFP.
'There is too much at stake.'
Shocking footage circulated on social media showed houses and cars smouldering after being set alight by Molotov cocktails thrown by the Israeli settlers
People check a burnt car a day after an attack by Jewish settlers on the village of Jit near Nablus in the occupied West Bank that left a 23-year-old man dead and others with critical gunshot wounds, on August 16, 2024
This comes shortly after dozens of Israeli settlers surged into a Palestinian village in the West Bank yesterday, burning cars and killing at least one person, Israeli authorities admitted yesterday.
The Palestinian health ministry said one 23-year-old man was killed and another suffered a critical gunshot wound in the chest when Israeli settlers opened fire in the village of Jit, the latest in a series of attacks by violent settlers in the West Bank.
Shocking footage circulated on social media showed houses and cars smouldering after being set alight by Molotov cocktails thrown by the Israeli settlers.
The fatal attacks came hours after an Israeli airstrike in the West Bank killed two other young Palestinians.
