The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has expressed frustration at the Hamas response to the latest proposed ceasefire deal with Israel. He said that after nearly two weeks of procrastinating, instead of coming back with the word “yes”, Hamas has insisted on a series of changes – some fundamental.
This is in stark contrast to the upbeat assessment of Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who said: “We are witnessing a shift in this conflict in the recent period, and there is a clear and firm call to end this war.” Al Thani’s optimism seemed to be an insider’s view given that Qatar, along with Egypt, has been sponsoring the ceasefire talks.
What this tells us perhaps is that Hamas is also negotiating with itself, due to its divided leadership of Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar and Yahya Sinwar in Gaza. And this makes these complex talks all the more unpredictable.
