US envoy to Israel says Gaza talks not 'broken down', gaps narrowing
Talks for a truce in Gaza have not yet "broken down," the U.S. ambassador to Israel said, after a Hamas delegation voiced dissatisfaction with Israel's positions and left Cairo.
"The differences are being narrowed. It's not yet an agreement. Everyone's looking towards Ramadan, which is coming close. I can't tell you that it will be successful, but it is not yet the case that it is broken down," Jack Lew said at a conference in Tel Aviv.
The U.S. envoy's remarks come after a senior Hamas official told AFP the group's delegation had left Egypt for consultations in Qatar.
"The initial (Israeli) responses do not meet the minimum requirements related to the permanent cessation of hostilities" or other Hamas conditions for a ceasefire, he added.
Hamas has been insisting on a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced people to their homes and allowing humanitarian aid in and reconstruction to begin in the territory.
Gadi Eisenkot, a member of Israel's five-member war cabinet, said Hamas is under "very serious pressure" from mediators to make a "counter-offer."
"Then it will be possible to advance it and take a position," Eisenkot said at the Tel Aviv conference.
The war broke out after Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that allegedly resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 Israeli troops and civilians according to Israeli figures.
Militants also took around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, around hundred of whom were released during a week-long November truce. Israel believes 99 of them remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died.
Israel's retaliatory air, land and sea offensive has killed at least 30,800 people, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Source: Agence France Presse
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