Huckabee: Israel’s Gaza City takeover may ‘go sideways,’ but Hamas wasn’t interested in negotiating

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israel’s plan to take over Gaza City “could go sideways,” but indicates that Jerusalem has no choice but to pursue the military route after Hamas rejected repeated proposals for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

“You mentioned the plan to take Gaza City. We don’t know how that’s going to go. It could go sideways. I think everybody understands there’s no guarantee that it will go well,” Huckabee says during an interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored.

However, the ambassador insists that Israel put repeated offers on the table and that Hamas was “not interested in that,” leading the US and Israel to pull out of negotiations.

Arab diplomats from mediating countries have told The Times of Israel that while Hamas did raise new demands in the proposal that led the US and Israel to recall their negotiating teams, Jerusalem had done the same thing at earlier stages in the negotiation process and that the gaps between the sides were still bridgeable.

Huckabee says that since Israel began moving toward expanding its military operations, Hamas has expressed interest in restarting negotiations. “One has to wonder, [is Hamas] really serious about ending this?”