US President Joe Biden will launch a renewed drive for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal after Israel and Hezbollah began a truce in Lebanon, his national security adviser said.
Jake Sullivan said Palestinian resistance movement Hamas faces increased pressure to cut a deal now that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement is no longer fighting in solidarity with them.
Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right before the US- and French-brokered truce with Hezbollah was announced Tuesday and they agreed to try again for an elusive Gaza truce, Sullivan said.
"President Biden intends to begin that work today by having his envoys engage with Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and other actors in the region," Sullivan told MSNBC.
An Egyptian security delegation will travel to Israel Thursday in an effort to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, two Egyptian security sources said.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said an air strike killed nine people in the north of the territory Wednesday as Israel kept up its bombardment.
The ministry said the strike hit a shelter for displaced people in Al-Tabi'een School in Gaza City's Daraj district.
US President Joe Biden crosses his fingers as he answers a question about a Gaza ceasefire after speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House on Tuesday, in Washington, DC. AFP
