US ‘slams Israel and deals directly with HAMAS to agree hostage release’

The US is said to have excluded Israel because it is negotiating an agreement directly with Hamas on the release of hostages.

Biden administration officials discussed striking a unilateral deal with the terror group to free five Americans held hostage in Gaza, two senior US government sources said. NBC.

The talks would be conducted through Qatari interlocutors, but only if current ceasefire and hostage negotiations involving Israel fail, it was reported.

The contingency plan aims to ensure the release of the five American-Israeli hostages held in Gaza – Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra and Keith Siegel.

The parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin said in a statement that they “welcome any negotiations that will lead to the return home of our loved ones who have been in captivity for more than eight months.”

A poster of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant after the October 7 deadly shooting, is placed at a bus station near the American consulate in Jerusalem on June 10, 2024.

The parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin said in a statement that they “welcome any negotiations that will lead to the return home of our loved ones who have been in captivity for more than eight months” (Photo: Rachel Goldberg-Polin)

Relatives of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian Hamas movement carry a photo of Omer Neutra, 22, in Kibbutz Nirim along the Gaza border fence on January 11, 2024

They added: “We pray that every family with hostages will be reunited with their loved ones soon.”

Hamas is also believed to have taken the bodies of three other Americans in their October 7 attack, which the US hopes will secure the remains with a unilateral deal.

It is not known what the US would offer Hamas in return, but one of the officials told NBC that Israel could be forced to accept a ceasefire deal if the US excluded the country from its negotiations with the terror group .

The White House has not yet responded to the news.

This comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was urging Middle East leaders to pressure Hamas to say yes to a ceasefire proposal to to stop fighting in Gaza.

Blinken said Hamas was the only outlier in not accepting the proposal for a three-phase deal, which includes the release of hostages and talks on ending the fighting, that he said Israel had agreed to.

“My message to governments across the region, to people across the region, is that if you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes,” Blinken told reporters before leaving Egypt to visit Israel. visits during his trip to the Middle East.

A senior Hamas official told Reuters that Blinken’s comments on the Gaza ceasefire were “biased against Israel.”

Blinken met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo before traveling to Israel, where he will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Blinken is on his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, triggering the bloodiest episode in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Families of Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, from left to right: Jonathan Dekel-Chan, Ruby Chen, Ronen Neutra and Orna Neutra, are interviewed by the Associated Press, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Washington

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to reporters after meeting the Egyptian president at Cairo airport on June 10, 2024

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, June 10, 2024

The top US diplomat said his trip would also discuss plans for governance and reconstruction in post-conflict Gaza, including meeting regional leaders in Jordan and Qatar.

The visit comes after President Biden on May 31 outlined Israel’s three-phase ceasefire proposal that would see a permanent end to hostilities, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza .

Blinken said Egyptian officials had been in contact with Hamas just a few hours ago.

There was a sense of urgency in getting an answer from Hamas on the deal, he said, but he declined to further detail his discussions.

Ceasefire talks have intensified since Biden’s speech and CIA Director William Burns met senior officials from mediators Qatar and Egypt in Doha on Wednesday to discuss the plan.

Biden has repeatedly declared a ceasefire in recent months, but there was only one weeklong truce in November.

According to Israeli figures, the Hamas attack on October 7 killed 1,200 people and took around 250 others hostage.

In response, Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, the health ministry in the Hamas-held territory said in its update on Sunday, reducing the enclave to a wasteland.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October during a raid on Gaza that killed 274 Palestinians.

Blinken did not respond when asked whether the raid had worsened hopes for a deal.

“Ultimately, I cannot place myself – none of us can place ourselves – in the minds of Hamas or its leaders,” Blinken said. “So we don’t know what the answer will be.”