DUBAI, August 20. /TASS/. The spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, Iran's elite military units) has slammed the United States’ attempts to help Israel and Hamas reach a ceasefire deal as hypocritical.

"We don’t think that the Americans want peace and a ceasefire. What they are doing is basically a political game. Iran hails sincere steps toward a ceasefire," the IRIB television channel quoted Ali Mohammad Naeini as saying.

Another round of Gaza ceasefire and hostage release consultations was held in Doha on August 15 and 16. The leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States said in their joint statement after the talks, which was released by Fahmy, that the talks had been held in a positive atmosphere and the sides agreed to hold their next meeting in Cairo the following week. Technical groups will continue work on mechanisms of the implementation of key provisions of the future agreement, including those concerning the exchange of hostages held in the Gaza Strip for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, as well as the humanitarian situation in the enclave.

The Times of Israel reported on August 18 that the new proposal put forth by the US negotiators in Doha will make it possible for other mediators - Egypt and Qatar - to talk Hamas into accepting the deal is Israel and the United States agree terms for the control over the movement of radical groups to norther Gaza and Israel’s military presence in the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.