Biden administration officials are considering negotiations on a deal with Hamas to secure the release of five Americans hostages if current cease-fire talks involving Israel fail, NBC News reported.
The hostages have been held in Gaza since being taken after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct 7.
Administration officials also hope to recover the remains of three additional U.S. citizens believed to have been killed on the day Hamas massacred nearly 1,200 Israelis.
Two current senior U.S. officials and two former senior U.S. officials told NBC News that any unilateral negotiations would be conducted through Qatari interlocutors and would not include Israel.
Under that scenario, Hamas could cut a deal with the Biden administration to put more political pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose actions have frustrated President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials.
The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the U.S. hostages, issued a statement that they supported such talks.
"We have seen the reports that the U.S. administration is considering negotiating directly with Hamas on freeing U.S. citizens from captivity in Gaza," Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin said, NBC News reported.
"We welcome any negotiations that will lead to the return home of our loved ones who have been in captivity for over eight months. We pray that every family with hostages will be reunited with their loved ones imminently.”
The Monday report came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed Hamas for holding up a cease-fire in Gaza, as the top U.S. diplomat conducted a Middle East peace mission to deliver President Joe Biden's latest proposed plan to end the Gaza war.
Speaking after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, Blinken said Hamas was the only side that had yet to agree to Biden's proposal, which Washington said already had Israel's backing before Biden announced it on May 31.
Washington says its proposal envisions a cease-fire in stages, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war. But Israel still says it will agree only to temporary pauses until Hamas is defeated, while Hamas says it will not accept a truce without guarantees that the war will end.
Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in a raid on Saturday that Palestinian officials said killed more than 200 people, one of the single bloodiest Israeli assaults of the 8-month-old war.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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