Blinken, Qatari prime minister discuss Hamas rejection of cease-fire proposal

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday told reporters in Doha, Qatar, that Hamas was responsible for the continued suffering and violence in the Gaza Strip. He said the United States, the UN, and other countries in the Middle East all supported a cease-fire roadmap U.S. President Joe Biden proposed late last month. Blinken said the Gaza-based terrorist group had access to the proposal for almost two weeks before it responded with new demands and requests, some of which went beyond positions previously proposed by Hamas officials during negotiations.

Even so, Blinken refused to say that Hamas explicitly “rejected” the cease-fire proposal, even as reporters pressed him on whether its failure to agree to it qualified as a rejection. Blinken did say that Hamas started the war with its Oct. 7 attack that killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel. He also said that if Hamas continued to reject cease-fire proposals like this one, the world would soon realize the terrorist group, not Israel, was responsible for prolonging the war.

What did he say about Israel’s response to the situation? Blinken said that Israel had agreed to the cease-fire proposal. Biden said the same when he initially proposed the three-phase cease-fire plan last month. But just days after Biden’s announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contested that claim, saying his country had not agreed to a cease-fire agreement that precluded all its objectives for the war—one of which, it said in a separate statement, was the complete eradication of Hamas. Just last week, the United States and several other countries called on both Israel and Hamas to accept the cease-fire resolution, even after Biden’s insistence that Israel had already done so.

What happens now? Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said they are still working to bring about a cease-fire in the region. They added that they remained committed to ending the hostilities and suffering in the Gaza Strip. They said every day that Hamas hesitated to accept a cease-fire agreement only served to prolong suffering in the Gaza region. Blinken on Wednesday also met with the emir, or head of state, of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and reiterated his commitment to bringing peace to the region.

Dig deeper: Read A.S. Ibrahim’s column in WORLD Opinions about what Hamas really represents.