Hamas, Israel downplay Biden’s cease-fire remarks as ‘premature’, ‘optimistic’
Hours after US President Joe Biden expressed hope that a cease-fire in Gaza could start by the beginning of next week, officials from Israel and the Palestinian resistance group slammed his comment as “premature” and
“optimistic.”
Biden said on Monday he hoped a cease-fire in Gaza could start by next Monday, adding that Israel was ready to halt operations during the Muslim month of Ramadan as part of any deal.
Amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, representatives from Egypt, Qatar, the United States, France and others have acted as go-betweens for Israel and Hamas, seeking a halt to Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
Asked during an election campaign trip to New York when such an agreement might start, Biden replied, “I hope by the end of the weekend”.
“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a cease-fire,” Biden told reporters.
Downplaying Biden’s remarks, a senior unnamed Israeli official told Ynet News that he “does not know what Biden’s optimism is based on”.
According to Reuters, a Hamas official also reacted to Biden’s comments, saying that Biden’s statement on Israel and Hamas agreeing on a cease-fire deal is premature and “does not match the situation on the ground.”
The Hamas official added that there are “big gaps that still need to be filled” in the cease-fire negotiations.
Mediators have been hoping to get a deal in place before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in about two weeks.
Biden has firmly supported Israel despite the soaring death toll in its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
Israel’s military operations have killed at least 29,878 people in Gaza, mostly women and children,
according to the Gaza health ministry.
Israel ‘systematically’ blocking aid access
The United Nations said on Tuesday Israeli forces are “systematically” blocking access to people in Gaza, complicating the task of delivering aid in what has become a lawless war zone.
It has become nearly impossible to evacuate the sick or wounded and deliver aid in northern Gaza and increasingly difficult in the south, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
All planned aid convoys into the north have been denied by Israeli authorities in recent weeks.
Even convoys cleared in advance with Israeli authorities have been blocked or come under fire.
Laerke pointed to an incident on Sunday, when a convoy to evacuate 24 patients from the besieged Al Amal hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis -- jointly organized by the WHO and Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) -- was blocked for seven hours and paramedics detained.