White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that mediators for Qatar and Egypt plan to engage Hamas fighters soon to see if there is a way to push ahead with a Gaza ceasefire proposal offered by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Sullivan spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a Ukraine peace summit and was asked about diplomatic efforts to get an agreement for Hamas to release some hostages held since Oct. 7 in exchange for a ceasefire lasting at least six weeks.
Sullivan said he had spoken briefly to one of the main interlocutors, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and that they would speak again about Gaza on Sunday while both are in Switzerland for the Ukraine conference.
Hamas has welcomed the ceasefire proposal, but insists any agreement must secure an end to the war, a demand Israel still rejects. Israel described Hamas's response to the new U.S. peace proposal as total rejection.
Sullivan said that U.S. officials have taken a close look at Hamas's response.
"We think some of the edits are not unexpected and can be managed. Some of them are inconsistent both with what President Biden laid out and what the U.N. Security Council endorsed. And we are having to deal with that reality," he said.
He said U.S. officials believe there remains an avenue to an agreement and that the next step will be for Qatari and Egyptian mediators to talk to Hamas and "go through what can be worked with and what really can't be worked with."
"We anticipate a back-and-forth between the mediators and Hamas. We'll see where we stand at that point. We will keep consulting with the Israelis and then hopefully at some point next week we'll be able to report to you where we think things stand and what we see as being the next step to try to bring this to closure," he said.
