Israel launches new attack in central Gaza Strip: Live updates

The meeting was about finding ways to bring Israel and Hamas closer to an agreement, the official said. He said Qatar had received preliminary positive feedback from Hamas on a ceasefire proposal that President Biden approved last week, but was still waiting for a formal response.

On Wednesday, the Qatari prime minister and Mr Kamel also met with Hamas leaders to discuss the proposal, said the official briefed on the talks.

Biden described the proposal as a new Israeli offer that would begin with a six-week cessation of fighting and eventually lead to a “permanent cessation of hostilities,” raising hopes among Israelis and Palestinians that a deal to end the nearly eight-month war was finally imminent. But since the president made the offer public, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected an end to the war without first destroying Hamas’s governing and military capabilities.

On Wednesday, a senior Hamas official reiterated the group’s position that it will not agree to any deal that does not include a permanent ceasefire. The official, Bassem Naim, said it “makes no sense” for the group to negotiate while Israeli forces launch new attacks in Gaza and said Hamas will not accept a temporary ceasefire.

“The thirsty will drink a little and the hungry will eat a little, and then, after a month and a half, we will be killed again?” he said.

The official, who was briefed on the Qatar meeting, said recent comments by Mr Netanyahu and other Israeli officials had raised questions among Hamas officials about whether Israel wanted a permanent cessation of fighting.

A spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Majed al-Ansari, said on Tuesday that they were waiting for “a clear Israeli position that represents the entire government.”

Given the public disagreement, Burns’ stay in Doha is not expected to bring much progress, said a second person briefed on the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate diplomacy. Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza and suspected mastermind of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel, has yet to comment on the latest proposal, the person said.

Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East coordinator, also returned to the region for meetings this week, a U.S. official said.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday that the proposal outlined by Biden was “still a current proposal”, even though Netanyahu had not publicly endorsed it and two of his ministers had said they would reject any agreement that left Hamas intact.

“Israel is a loud democracy, so there is a lot of talk and chatter,” Sullivan said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. “But the Israeli government has confirmed repeatedly just today that this proposal is still on the table and it is now up to Hamas to accept it. And the whole world should be calling on Hamas to accept it.”

The first phase of the proposal put forward by Biden called for both sides to observe a temporary six-week ceasefire while continuing to negotiate a permanent truce. At a meeting with Israeli lawmakers on Monday, Netanyahu expressed openness to a 42-day ceasefire, welcoming at least part of the first phase of the three-part plan outlined by Biden, according to a person who took part in the discussion.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said the latest Israeli position communicated to the group did not include a permanent ceasefire or a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza – both conditions that Hamas insists on. Israel, Hamdan said, was only interested in a temporary ceasefire to release the hostages and then resume the war.

“We call on the mediators to reach a clear position of the Israeli occupying power,” he said.

Raja Abdulrahim contributed to the reporting.