Qatar says Hamas has yet to respond to the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal

Hamas “indicated it is still studying the proposal,” a foreign ministry spokesman added.

Qatar has been conducting secret talks with the US and Egypt for months to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

So far they have only been able to hold off the fighting for seven days in November, which allowed them to free more than 100 hostages in one fight.

Last week, the US president proposed a new three-phase ceasefire plan. Despite Biden’s assurances that the plan was created by Israel, Jewish state leaders appear to have distanced themselves from it.

On Wednesday, Hamas representatives met with Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief in Doha.

According to the Egyptian network Al-Qahera News on Thursday, a senior official in Cairo said he had received encouraging signals from Hamas about a possible agreement with Israel.

But Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, said the latest proposal was “words spoken by Biden in a speech.”

“So far, the Americans have not produced any documents or writings that confirm what Biden said in his speech,” he said.

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