Hamas accuses Trump administration of bias towards Israel amid waiting for response to ceasefire proposal

The Palestinian Hamas movement accused U.S. President Donald Trump's administration of "bias towards Israel." This accusation came coinciding with a meeting held by Trump at the White House to discuss developments following the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

The movement's accusation was in response to statements made by U.S. envoy Stephen Wittykoff, where Hamas leader Izzat al-Rashq expressed the movement's "surprise" at those statements in a press release, in which Wittykoff held Hamas responsible for obstructing ceasefire negotiations in the sector suffering from dire humanitarian conditions.

Al-Rashq stated in the press release: "These positions can only be understood in the context of U.S. bias towards the fascist occupation, and the cover that the U.S. administration provides to war criminal (Benjamin) Netanyahu to enable him to continue the crime of genocide against innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip."

U.S. envoy Wittykoff had stated to Fox News on Tuesday: "We had an agreement on the table six or seven weeks ago to release ten of the (Israeli) hostages, but Hamas delayed agreeing to it. Hamas is now saying they have agreed, I think they changed their mind because Israel pressured them a lot."

Wittykoff added in his statement: "An agreement must be reached to bring the hostages back home. Hamas knows it cannot be part of any future government (for Gaza), which is a common request from Israel and President Trump as well."

On another note, mediation efforts are still ongoing. Qatar, one of the mediators in the ceasefire negotiations, reported on Tuesday that it is still "waiting" for the official response from the Israeli government to the proposal submitted by Qatar along with Egypt, which Hamas agreed to last week.

In this regard, the spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Majid Al-Ansari, said: "The stage we are currently in is waiting for the Israeli response. There is no official Israeli response to the mediators' proposal that Hamas agreed to."