He tells us that he has held direct conversations with Hamas for publishing American hostages
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The US has been negotiating directly with Hamas because of the possibility of releasing American hostages in their first direct conversations with a militant group, the White House said on Wednesday.
Direct diplomacy, conducted by a special hostage envoy in Doha in Doha, comes as a conversation on the lengthening of the tribute between between Israel and Hamas Or make it permanent.
In response to a question about whether OUR Direct conversation with Hamas, the print secretary of the Karolina Leavitt White House said on Wednesday: “These are interviews and discussions. I will not describe them in detail here. These are American lives.”
Leavitt said they were now consulting Israel about conversations, adding that President Donald Trump believed in “dialogue and talking to people around the world to do what is in the best interests of the American people.”
A person familiar with this question said the discussions covered the possible publication of American hostages and the end of the war.
On Wednesday night, the Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel expressed his position with the United States regarding direct conversations with Hamas.”
Now they have long avoided direct conversations with Hamas, which she labeled as a terrorist group in 1997.
Hamas still holds 59 hostages in Gaza, less than half of which is believed to be alive. Five are US dual nationals, including one, Edan Alexander of New Jersey, who is believed to be alive.
According to Israeli officials, American special envoy Steve Witkoff made a “rearrangement” last weekend to extend the current truce for another 50 days. The agreement would be dependent on Hamas to let half of the remaining hostages still hold.
Hamas immediately rejected the proposal, calling it “manipulation.”
International intermediaries broke in a six -week stop of fighting at the end of January, during which more than three tenths of hostages were released and about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners liberated from Israeli prison.
That initial phase of the truce ended last weekend, although the fight did not continue.
Hamas publicly remained unwavering in his position that the next phase of the tribute would have to agree before the additional hostages were released.
The second phase would include a completely Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the permanent end of the war and the renovation of the broken territory.
In response to Hamas’s rejection of Witkoff’s proposal, Israel suspended all the help of help In the surrounded enclave on Sunday and threatened to cut off water and electricity on the eve of a possible restored offensive.
“Israel will not allow a truce without letting out our hostages. If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences,” Netanyahu said.
The US is pushing to expand the host agreement, which negotiated Witkoff and the Administration of Biden before Trump returned to duty.
Analysts said they would now fight for the delivery of what Hamas wanted in conversations, adding that conversations with a militant group took risk of driving a wedge between the Israeli public and Washington.
“It’s hard to imagine that this will be successful, because what Hamas wants is to end the war, which I can’t control now, and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prison, which I can’t control now,” said Jonathan Panikoff of the Atlantic Council.
“There are significant risks for negotiating with terrorist groups because Washington’s knowledge will make them encourage them to repeat their activities in the future,” he added.
