U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee slammed countries recognizing a Palestinian state as harming efforts to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

While the U.S. has repeatedly blamed Hamas as an obstacle to securing a ceasefire and release deal, an Israeli strike against Hamas officials in Qatar in mid-September effectively ended negotiations being carried out by the Trump administration at the time.

“The first thing that happened as Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio has repeatedly point out, it just ended negotiations with Hamas. That froze absolutely stone cold,” the US ambassador to Israel said in an interview on

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