International mediators were heading to the Middle East for a high-stakes round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday as they raced to lock down an elusive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that could defuse tensions before an anticipated attack on Israel by Iran and Hezbollah.
The ceasefire talks, which are set to take place in Doha, Qatar, or Cairo, were expected to include top intelligence officials from Egypt, Israel and the United States, as well as the Qatari Prime Minister.
But as of Tuesday, Hamas representatives were not planning to take part. Ahmad Abdul-Hadi, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, said in an interview that doing so would mean going “backward to square one,” and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel of dragging out the negotiations.
“Netanyahu is not interested in reaching an agreement that ends the aggression completely, but rather he is deceiving and evading and wants to prolong the war, and even expand it at the regional level,” Mr. Abdul-Hadi said.
Hamas’s decision did not appear to bode well for a breakthrough Thursday, but it did not mean the group had completely left the bargaining table.
Hamas leaders have not met directly with Israeli officials throughout the war, relying on Qatar and Egypt to act as intermediaries. And many of Hamas’s most senior political leaders are based in Qatar, a short drive from the offices of Qatari mediators in Doha.
Two officials briefed on the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said Hamas would still be willing to engage with mediators after the meeting if Israel put forward a “serious response” to Hamas’s latest offer, from early July.
A State Department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said Qatari officials had assured the United States they would work to have Hamas represented at the talks, though he did not say if members of the group would attend in person or would be represented only by intermediaries.
“We fully expect these talks to move forward,” Mr. Patel said.
Asked Tuesday about the potential for a ceasefire deal, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that “It’s getting harder” but that he was “not giving up.”
Mr. Netanyahu has rejected accusations that he is stonewalling and has accused Hamas of thwarting a deal to stop the fighting and free the remaining hostages who were seized during the attack it led on Israel on Oct. 7. But Mr. Netanyahu has added new conditions to Israel’s demands that his own negotiators fear have created obstacles to a deal, according to unpublished documents reviewed by The New York Times. His office said he was simply clarifying ambiguities.
While Hamas has said a ceasefire agreement should include an end to the war and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, Mr. Netanyahu has said that Israel will not stop fighting until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed.
Last Thursday, Mr. Biden, along with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, declared that “the time has come” for a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
“There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay,” the leaders said in a joint statement. They said they were willing to present a “final bridging proposal” to close a deal between Israel and Hamas.
At a news conference Tuesday in Washington, Mr. Patel said that the United States was “so clearly committed to this because we think it is in the vital interests of the region.” A ceasefire could create the conditions necessary to “get the region out of this endless cycle of violence,” he said.
Tensions in the Middle East have been running high since Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an explosion while he was visiting Tehran on July 31, just hours after a senior Hezbollah commander, Fouad Shukur, was killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Iran has vowed to retaliate for the assassination on its soil. Israel has not acknowledged that it was behind the explosion, but U.S. officials have privately assessed that it was. Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia backed by Iran that has been trading fire with Israel for months, has promised to avenge Mr. Shukur’s death.
Mr. Netanyahu has promised to “exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us, from any quarter.”
U.S. and European leaders have urged Iran not to retaliate, warning that an attack could set of a broader regional war. But Iran has insisted it has the right to defend its sovereignty.
On Tuesday, Nasser Kanani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said that Britain, France and Germany, in issuing a joint statement calling on Iran to exercise restraint, had ignored Israeli attacks in the region.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is firm and resolute in defending its sovereignty and national security, as well as helping to establish lasting stability in the region and creating deterrence against the real origin and main source of insecurity and terrorism in the region,” Mr. Kanani said in a statement.
Iran, he said, “won’t ask for permission from anyone to use its established rights.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.