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The United States on Wednesday declared that it was time to “finalise” a deal between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war.
This is coming after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to bow to pressure.
The US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, "Washington will work over the coming days with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar to push for a final agreement."
He was speaking after Netanyahu rejected “concessions” in indirect negotiations with Hamas, despite growing domestic and international pressure following the recovery by Israel’s military of six killed hostages from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“It is time to finalise that deal,” Miller said.
The United States had on Tuesday unsealed a raft of “terrorism” and other charges against six Hamas leaders related to the group’s October 7 attack on Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.
Those targeted in the February charges included Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh, who had been engaged in truce talks when he was killed in July in an attack blamed on Israel.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk called for an “independent, impartial and transparent investigation” into reports that the six captives recovered dead from Gaza had been summarily executed.
Despite increasing grief and fury among Israelis, who have taken to the streets to pressure the government and express concern for the fate of the hostages, Netanyahu said he would “not give in to pressure”.
The Israeli prime minister “has been ruining our chances to get a deal with Hamas to return our hostages alive,” Tel Aviv protester Jonathan Edan said on Tuesday.
“The only thing he wants to survive is his political career and his coalition,” the 26-year-old told AFP.
Egypt on Tuesday rejected accusations its Gaza border was being used to arm Hamas, accusing Netanyahu of seeking to “distract Israeli public opinion and obstruct reaching a ceasefire deal”.
Saudi Arabia backed Cairo and expressed its “strong condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli statements regarding the Philadelphi Corridor”, in a foreign ministry statement.
US President Joe Biden, meeting with negotiators, replied “no” when asked if he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a hostage deal.
Hamas has long demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and Egyptian officials have objected to an Israeli military presence on the border.
Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967 and maintained troops and settlers there until 2005, when it withdrew but imposed a crippling blockade and, since the start of the current war, a total siege.
Increasing the pressure on Israel, Britain on Monday said it would suspend some arms exports, citing a “clear risk” they could be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.
On Tuesday, the civil defence spokesman in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli raid on a college killed two people and wounded 30.
Israel’s military said it had targeted “Hamas terrorists” at a Gaza City college.
The civil defence agency, witnesses and AFP correspondents also reported air strikes and shelling across southern and central Gaza.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas since October 7 has killed at least 40,819 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The UN rights office said most of the dead were women and children.
