Although there is no certainty about Hamas’ membership, the US State Department says Qatar has assured Washington that the Palestinian group will be represented.
A new round of negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire is due to take place in Doha, with the participation of officials from Israel, Qatar, the United States and Egypt, officials said.
It is not yet clear whether the Palestinian group Hamas will join the high-stakes talks in the Qatari capital on Thursday.
However, the US State Department says Qatar has assured Washington that Hamas will be represented.
Hamas has expressed skepticism about the chances of the negotiations producing real results, accusing Israel of blocking the talks after nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in 10 months of war.
“The use of new negotiations allows the occupation to impose new conditions and use the labyrinth of negotiations to carry out more massacres,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters news agency.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hamdah Salhut said the group wants mediators to return to the original framework of the deal presented by US President Joe Biden in May.
“They say that until they have this guarantee, they will not make a decision on sending a delegation to the negotiations,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister confirmed that an Israeli team would participate in Thursday’s negotiations in Doha, according to a statement released Wednesday.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the departure of the Israeli delegation to Doha tomorrow, as well as the mandate to lead the negotiations,” his office said in a statement.
Mossad chief David Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, Nitzan Alon and Ophir Falk will make up the Israeli delegation, Netanyahu spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP news agency.
Alon coordinates issues related to the captives and Falk is a political adviser to Netanyahu.
The resumption of negotiations follows calls from mediating countries, which have warned of a regional conflagration if the ten-month assault on Gaza continues.
Senior Iranian officials have said that only a ceasefire agreement in Gaza would prevent Iran from directly retaliating against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil last month.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that CIA Director Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk would represent the United States at the cease-fire talks.
Jean-Pierre said the United States expects the negotiations to go ahead as planned, even if Hamas does not participate.
Reporting from the White House, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Kimberly Halkett said the US has maintained that some progress will be made in the negotiations, even as Biden has said it is “increasingly difficult” to achieve a breakthrough.
“Even though it does not bode well, the United States says there will be progress and they are preparing for it,” she said.
“So that’s the message that’s been conveyed, the main objective being to try to get some kind of ceasefire, hopefully that will prevent a broader escalation in the region,” she said.
