FALCON POWERS – On Thursday, US President Joe Biden claimed that Hamas represents an “obstacle” to the success of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip due to its refusal to sign it.
This came during a press conference held by Biden with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy.
Biden said, “The bottom line is we’ve reached an agreement, and I’ve laid out an approach that has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, the G7, and the Israelis,” as he put it.
He alleged that the Hamas movement represents an “obstacle” to the success of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip due to its refusal to sign it.
On Wednesday, the White House said the amendments made by Hamas to the proposed ceasefire agreement with Israel in the Gaza Strip were “minor and expected.”
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, in a press statement, explained that “a number of the changes proposed by Hamas to the agreement were minor and expected.” On the same day, Hamas criticized US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s attempt to absolve Israel of obstructing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, considering it a continuation of his country’s policy of complicity in the “genocide war” on the Gaza Strip.
Israel has not yet explicitly approved the proposal announced by Biden, and in its statements it insists on continuing the war on Gaza until it achieves its goals, the most prominent of which is “the elimination of Hamas.”
Meanwhile, a delegation from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, upon submitting the movement’s response to Qatar on Tuesday, “expressed its readiness to deal positively to reach an agreement that ends this war against our people out of a sense of national responsibility.”
On Monday evening, the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution calling on Israel and Hamas to “fully implement” the proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of prisoners, which was revealed by President Joe Biden at the end of last May.
The proposal includes 3 stages for the ceasefire, and ultimately calls for a permanent ceasefire and the release of Israeli detainees in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
