President Joe Biden has said that US mediators were making progress in reaching a Gaza ceasefire deal, as he called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

Biden acknowledged there remained “difficult, complex issues” between Israel and Hamas when it comes to the truce agreement. “There are still gaps to close. We’re making progress,” Biden said, adding “the trend is positive, and I’m determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now.”

In a high-stakes, nearly hour-long news conference aimed at repudiating doubters of his reelection bid, the president acknowledged concerns about Israeli actions despite his overall support for the US ally.

“There’s a lot of things in retrospect I wish I had been able to convince the Israelis to do, but the bottom line is we have a chance now. It’s time to end this war,” he said after a Nato summit in Washington DC.

Biden, more than a month ago, laid out a plan in which Israel would temporarily halt its offensive in Gaza and Palestinian militants would release hostages, setting the stage for talks for a permanent end to the devastating nine-month war.

Hamas came back with counterproposals and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pushback from some of his hard-right government allies. Diplomats have spoken of progress in the latest round of talks that closed on Thursday in Qatar, the key mediator.

More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.

An Israeli negotiation team on Thursday travelled to Cairo to hold further Gaza ceasefire talks, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. “A delegation headed by the head of the Shin Bet (domestic security service), together with representatives of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), is scheduled to leave for Cairo this evening to continue the talks,” the statement said, adding that Netanyahu met throughout the day with negotiators who returned from Doha.
Israeli airstrikes pounded parts of Gaza’s biggest city on Thursday, Hamas said, after Israel’s military declared an end to its operation in an eastern district that saw Gaza City’s heaviest combat in months. The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement followed Netanyahu’s statement in late June that “the war in its intense phase is about to end”.
Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault on Thursday, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar. Hamas militants say a massive Israeli assault on Gaza City this week could wreck efforts to finally end the war just as negotiations have entered the home stretch, reports Reuters.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said he met visiting US envoy Brett McGurk on Thursday and discussed progress in reaching a Gaza hostage release deal. Gallant, according to a statement from his office, said they also spoke about “the delivery of critical munition, some of which will be sent to Israel in the coming days.”
The US has stepped up efforts to target violent Israeli settlers, adding new individuals and organisations to a growing sanctions list and warning banks to check transactions linked to all Israeli “outposts” in the occupied West Bank. The new sanctions cover the far-right group Lehava, already listed by the UK, and two founding members of Tsav9, a campaign group that blocked aid from reaching Gaza. The new measures also target outposts, suggesting the Biden administration is prepared to take at least some steps to confront Israel’s creeping land grab on the West Bank.

Темы и теги

США Военные Действия

Байден Газой медиатор сша прогресс соглашение прекращение живой огонь война израиль