U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday pushed back against assertions that Israel isn’t fully committed to the cease-fire proposal with Hamas that President Joe Biden outlined in late May at the White House. “Israel has supplied this proposal. It has been sitting on the table for some time. Israel has not contradicted or walked that back,” Sullivan said Thursday in Italy, where Biden was set to attend the annual Group of Seven leaders’ summit. “To this day they stand behind the proposal.” “I don’t think that there is a contradiction in the Israeli position,” Sullivan added. Sullivan reiterated that Hamas had responded by offering an amended proposal and he said the goal is “to figure out how we work to bridge the remaining gaps and get to a deal.” “The goal is to try to bring this to a conclusion as rapidly as possible,” he told reporters.
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Quick Read
- U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan affirmed that Israel supports the cease-fire proposal with Hamas that President Joe Biden outlined in late May.
- Sullivan, speaking in Italy ahead of the G7 summit, stated that Israel has neither contradicted nor walked back from the proposal and remains committed to it.
- Hamas has responded with an amended proposal, and efforts are ongoing to bridge gaps and reach a deal.
- Sullivan emphasized the urgency of concluding the cease-fire negotiations swiftly to address the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The Associated Press has the story:
US national security adviser says Israel stands behind cease-fire proposal
Newslooks- FASANO, Italy — (AP)
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday pushed back against assertions that Israel isn’t fully committed to the cease-fire proposal with Hamas that President Joe Biden outlined in late May at the White House.
“Israel has supplied this proposal. It has been sitting on the table for some time. Israel has not contradicted or walked that back,” Sullivan said Thursday in Italy, where Biden was set to attend the annual Group of Seven leaders’ summit. “To this day they stand behind the proposal.”
“I don’t think that there is a contradiction in the Israeli position,” Sullivan added.
Sullivan reiterated that Hamas had responded by offering an amended proposal and he said the goal is “to figure out how we work to bridge the remaining gaps and get to a deal.”
“The goal is to try to bring this to a conclusion as rapidly as possible,” he told reporters.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that mediators are trying to close the deal for an elusive cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza. Hamas has requested numerous changes to a U.S.-backed proposal — some of which Blinken said were “workable” and some not.
Hamas says its “amendments” aim to guarantee a permanent cease-fire and complete Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. The cease-fire proposal announced by Biden includes those provisions, but Hamas has expressed wariness whether Israel will implement the terms.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. U.N. agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Voices of displaced Palestinians in Gaza: jaded hopes for a cease-fire despite war’s bloody toll
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Weary after eight months of war, frustrated Palestinians displaced from their homes in Gaza said Wednesday they are cautiously hoping for a cease-fire.
Some are more skeptical than others, as previous moments of optimism have been dashed by differences between Israel and Hamas.
“We are psychologically tired,” said Etaf Abdel Bari, a displaced woman living in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. “They negotiated a lot, to no avail? We are not a toy in their hands. Our sons, daughters, and families killed without a reason. For what?”
More than 1 million people have fled Israel’s invasion of the southern Gaza city Rafah, scattering across southern and central Gaza into new tent camps or crowding into schools and homes.
“Every day there is a truce, there is no truce. We want a solution. We want to return to our homes,” said a displaced man, Salama Abu al-Qumbuz. “We are tired of this life, sleeping in the street, transporting water. Our lives have become very boring.”
The United Nations says over one million people in Gaza face desperate hunger and don’t have enough clean drinking water.
Other residents of Deir al-Balah took a more cynical view of the back-and-forth truce talks.
“I expect the war to continue. There are no negotiations,” said Abu Jamil al-Maqadma. “The negotiations are false.”
Iraq’s top diplomat says he is concerned Israel might escalate military action in Lebanon
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s top diplomat expressed concerns Thursday that Israel might escalate its military operations in Lebanon with ripple effects that could reach his country.
“There are dangerous signs that there may be an attack on southern Lebanon and if this attack happens, it will affect the region and not just Lebanon,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said after a meeting with acting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani in his first visit to Baghdad since taking the post. The two officials called for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Kani replaced former Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19 along with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and a delegation of other officials.
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have launched drone attacks on targets in Israel and on bases in Iraq and Syria housing U.S. troops since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, where Israeli forces are fighting against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. However, the most intense fighting outside of Gaza has been on the Lebanon-Israel border, where the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has been clashing with Israeli forces almost daily for more than eight months.
In recent weeks, those clashes have intensified, with fears of a further escalation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that Israel is “prepared for very intense action” along its northern border with Lebanon. Should a wider conflict break out in Lebanon, the Iraqi militias are widely expected to join their ally, Hezbollah, in the fight.
Currently:
— What are the main sticking points in the cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas?
— Report by UN-backed experts cites crimes by Israeli forces and Palestinian militants starting 0ct. 7.
— Hezbollah vows to intensify attacks against Israel after an airstrike kills a senior commander.
— Blinken says some of Hamas’ proposed changes to a cease-fire plan in Gaza are workable and some are not.
— Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch boat-borne bomb attack against Greek-owned ship in Red Sea.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
