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Monday, September 8, 2025
Qatar PM urges Hamas to accept latest US-backed ceasefire-hostage release deal, source says
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Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pressed Hamas political leaders to “respond positively” to the latest US-proposed Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal during talks in Doha today, an official briefed on the talks tells Reuters.
“The Qatari prime minister pressed Hamas to respond positively to the latest American proposal, conveyed through mediators, and aimed at securing a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza,” the official says.
Hamas senior official Bassem Naim said today that the US’s Gaza ceasefire proposal amounted to “preliminary” ideas meant to elicit a rejection from the terror group.
“It is clear that the primary goal is to reach the refusal of the offer and not reach an agreement that leads to the end of the war,” he said in a post on his Telegram channel, without presenting the group’s official stance.
He added that Hamas is not interested in “signing a humiliating surrender document, and Hamas leadership does not include an emperor like Japan’s Hirohito,” a reference to Japan’s unconditional surrender to the US at the end of World War II.
Nurit Yohanan contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.