Palestinians walk past destroyed buildings after the Israeli military withdrew following a two-week offensive in the Shujaiya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, yesterday.
Many details still need to be hammered out to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages from Gaza, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said today.
“There’s still miles to go before we close if we are able to close. So I don’t want to say that it’s immediately around the corner, but it does not have to be far out in the distance if everyone comes in this with the will to get it done,” Sullivan told reporters, adding that there has been no change in policy with regard to a US pause of shipment of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel.
Sullivan also said President Joe Biden will soon give an update on the status of ceasefire talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday accused Palestinian resistance group Hamas of making demands in talks on a possible ceasefire in Gaza that contradict a framework deal brokered by Washington.
While Netanyahu spoke, some residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets after an intense new Israeli assault that Hamas says could wreck the prospects of a ceasefire.
Washington is pushing for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar to end the Gaza war, now in its tenth month. The head of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency was headed to Cairo to pursue the negotiations, Netanyahu’s office said.
