State Department says getting to Gaza ceasefire important, details can be worked out later

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says a potential deal to end the war in Gaza being championed by Washington would potentially leave the Hamas terror group in charge of the Strip.

Asked about the discrepancy between the proposal and pledges by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismantle the terror organization, Miller says it will need to be worked out in negotiations that would take place during the first phase of the deal.

“The details of how you get to phase two are going to have to be negotiated, and that’s what we were prepared to do,” Miller says.

He clarifies that “Hamas cannot continue to govern Gaza [after the war]. We also don’t believe that you can eliminate Hamas just with a military campaign. A military campaign can kill fighters, can detain fighters, but those fighters in many cases will be replaced by other recruits. So we need a political path forward, and that’s what we want to try to negotiate,” Miller says.

The spokesperson becomes exasperated when asked if Hamas would agree to a deal aimed at its ultimate destruction. “We just need to get a ceasefire,” he says.

Miller later adds that Hamas could agree to the deal out of concern for the well-being of Gazans.

“Because they don’t want to see continued conflict, continued Palestinian people dying, war in Gaza and the reconstruction of Gaza,” he says, but acknowledges that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar might decide “that he’s safe in a tunnel and that his interests have diverged from the people of Gaza,” leading him to reject the Israeli ceasefire proposal.

“But if you look at the deal that’s on the table, it is manifestly in the interest of the Palestinian people, it is manifestly in the interest of the Israeli people, it is manifestly in the interests of the world. That’s why we’ll continue to push for it,” Miller says. “If Hamas really does represent the interests of the Palestinian people — as they say over and over — without a doubt they’ll take this deal.”

Read more: The US aims to wrap up Gaza war. How does that square with its goal of toppling Hamas?