White House says official is discussing release of Hamas hostages in Doha

White House officials said on Tuesday that a US official was in Doha seeking talks with Hamas and Qatari negotiatiors regarding the possibility of a second deal to secure a ceasefire and accompanying release of hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Brett McGurk was engaged in «very serious and intensive discussions» with Qatari officials on that topic, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby told reporters during a virtual press briefing.

“We are hopeful it will bear fruit and bear fruit soon,” he added.

Such a development would provide a much-needed boost to the Biden administration’s image on the issue of Israel’s military invasion of the Gaza Strip, launched after a deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in October that left some 1,200 people killed and saw more than 200 kidnapped. Criticism of the Israeli military’s seemingly indiscriminate leveling of whole city blocks across the Gaza Strip is growing in the US, particularly among progressives but also among other groups, including employees of the federal government who are planning a walkout this week to protest the issue.

Arab-American and progressive groups in the US have been livid with the administration for months, accusing the president of only addressing the suffering of Palestinian civilians under Israeli siege as an afterthought.

At the top of Joe Biden’s list of problems remains his relationship with the Israeli government. Despite reporting indicating that he had undercut President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the issue of holding Israel to the standard of international law when he was vice president, Mr Biden’s current relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is described as frosty — if not outright hostile.