US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US is “continuing to work every day on increasing the flow of assistance into Gaza and making sure it gets to people who need it within Gaza, working to improve civilian protection, working to release the hostages, Al Jazeera reports.
“The single most effective and most immediate way to end the suffering of people in Gaza, to end suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike, is to tackle the human assistance crisis, to protect conflict from escalating and spreading to other places is to get a ceasefire,” he said.
He lauded Qatar’s efforts, saying: “Qatar has been a tireless partner in working to mediate a ceasefire and a hostage release.”
Hamas wants written guarantees from the United States for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip in order to sign off on a US-backed truce proposal, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
The Egyptian sources and a third source with knowledge of the talks said Hamas had concerns that the current proposal does not provide explicit guarantees over the transition from the first phase of the plan, which includes a six-week truce and the release of some hostages, to the second phase, which includes a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal.
The Egyptian sources said Hamas would only accept the plan if the guarantees were in place, and Egypt was in contact with the US about the demand.
“Hamas wants reassurances of an automatic transition from one phase to another as per the agreement laid out by President Biden,” the third source said.
Hamas and Egyptian authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
