Senior Hamas Official Criticizes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Gaza Proposal Claims

JAKARTA - Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan criticized US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement on Monday regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepting an updated proposal.

Hamdan said the proposal "creates a lot of ambiguity" because it "does not correspond to what was conveyed to us and also does not correspond to what we have agreed to," as reported by Reuters on August 20.

Hamdan told Reuters that Hamas had confirmed to mediators, "we do not need a new Gaza ceasefire negotiation, we only need to agree on an implementation mechanism."

Previously reported, Secretary of State Blinken said PM Netanyahu had accepted a "bridging proposal" submitted by Washington to resolve disagreements that are blocking a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

"In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridge proposal, that he supports it," Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.

"Now Hamas must do the same, and then the parties, with the help of the mediators - the United States, Egypt and Qatar - must come together and complete the process to reach a clear understanding of how they will implement the commitments that they have made under this agreement," he added.

While the US expressed optimism and Netanyahu's office described the meeting as positive, both Israel and Hamas have signaled that any deal will be difficult to reach.

Hamas officials have accused Washington of siding with Israel.

"When Blinken says that Israel agrees and then Israel says that there is an updated proposal, this means that the Americans are bowing to Israeli pressure and not the other way around. We believe that this is a maneuver to buy more time for Israel," Hamdan said.

Earlier, talks in Doha, Qatar seeking a ceasefire and a hostage-return deal broke down last week without a breakthrough, but are expected to resume this week under a U.S. proposal to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas.

The months-long talks have been on the same page, with Israel saying the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force. Hamas itself has said it would accept only a permanent, not a temporary, ceasefire.

There are disagreements over Israel's continued military presence in Gaza, particularly along the border with Egypt, the free movement of Palestinians within the territory, and the identity and number of prisoners to be released in a prisoner swap.

It is known that the latest conflict in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian armed militant group led by Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 hostages according to Israeli calculations.

Separately, medical sources in Gaza announced on Monday that at least 40 Palestinians were killed and 134 others injured as a result of Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours, reported the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Meanwhile, local health authorities confirmed that the number of Palestinian fatalities due to Israeli attacks since October 7 has increased to 40,139, while 92,743 others were injured. The majority of the victims were women and children.