US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday he believed a deal on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release may be close as Israel had signalled it was ready and there were signs of movement from Hamas.
After meeting Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Mr Sullivan said: “It might not happen but I believe it can happen with political will on both sides.”
He said he planned to travel to Qatar and Egypt, Washington’s fellow moderators of the talks, to advance efforts that “would start bringing those hostages home” and “allow for a massive surge in humanitarian assistance”.
A western diplomat in the region said this week that a deal was taking shape but was likely to be limited in scope, involving the release of only a handful of hostages and a short pause in hostilities.
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Mr Sullivan, an adviser to US president Joe Biden, said he had been engaging with president-elect Donald Trump’s choice to succeed him, Mike Waltz, “in a professional and serious way on all the issues that affect the state of Israel”. He dismissed suggestions that Mr Netanyahu was waiting for Mr Trump to take office on January 20th before accepting a deal.
Mr Sullivan’s comments come as Israel killed 13 Palestinians in two air strikes on Thursday, that Gaza medics and Hamas said were part of a force protecting humanitarian aid trucks. Israel’s military said they were Hamas militants trying to hijack the shipment.
Many of those killed in the attacks on Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza had links to Hamas, medics and Palestinian residents said. The 13 were among 36 Palestinians killed in separate Israeli attacks on Thursday, the medics said.
The Israeli military said in a statement the two air strikes aimed to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and accused Hamas members of planning to prevent the aid from reaching Gaza civilians who need it.
The statement said the Hamas members aimed to hijack the aid “in support of continuing terrorist activity”.
Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks after they roll into the enclave, and Hamas formed a taskforce to confront them. The Hamas-led forces have killed over two dozen members of the gangs in recent months, Hamas sources and medics said.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA initially reported those killed in the two air strikes were guarding the aid trucks.
Children were among seven people killed when a residential building in Gaza City’s al-Jalaa Street was bombed in a separate attack, WAFA said.
Another Israeli bombing killed 15 people in a house where displaced people were taking shelter, west of Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics and WAFA said.
In the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalia, where the army has operated since October, health officials said an orthopaedic doctor, Saeed Judeh, was shot dead by Israeli forces while on his way to Al-Awda Hospital where he usually treated patients.
A truce, allowing for the release of at least some of the 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, would be only the second since the war began. Mr Sullivan said seven of the hostages were American although four were believed to be dead.
An agreement would also enable the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Mr Sullivan said Hamas’ negotiating posture appeared to have changed following a ceasefire deal that halted Israel’s hostilities with Iranian-backed Hizbullah militants in Lebanon and which made clear Hamas could not expect outside support.
“And from that moment forward, we’ve had a different character to the negotiation and we believe that it puts us in a position to be able to close this negotiation.”
Anything more than a limited truce remains unlikely so long as both sides stick to demands that have hampered numerous rounds of failed negotiations. “Whether it does get done still depends on both sides signing on the proverbial dotted line,” Mr Sullivan said.
Hamas, also backed by Iran, wants an end to the war before all hostages are freed, while Israel says the war will not end until the hostages return and Hamas no longer rules Gaza or constitutes a threat to Israelis.
Sullivan declined to comment on reports that Hamas may be willing to agree to Israeli troops remaining in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza and on the Philadelphi Corridor on its southern edge for longer than they had previously accepted.
On Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire and the immediate release of all hostages.
The war in the Palestinian enclave began after Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s military has levelled swathes of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing early 45,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. – Reuters
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