After a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the possibility of a halt in fighting with Hamas and the release of hostages in Gaza is “more likely,” according to US official
Text: Ken Bredemeier
The possibility of ending more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and the release of some 100 hostages held by the militants, is now “more likely” thanks to the ceasefire reached last week between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, a senior US national security official said this Sunday.
The US and other negotiators “may have a chance” to end the 14 months of fighting in Gaza, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on CNN’s State of the Union, but he avoided making a prediction “because we have been close before.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, declared Sunday: “There are negotiations going on behind the scenes, and it can be done.”
Sullivan said on NBC’s Meet the Press: “We are deeply engaged with key players in the region, and there is activity even today. “There will be more talks and consultations, and our hope is that we can achieve a ceasefire and a hostage agreement, but we are not there yet.”
Sullivan spoke a day after Hamas released a video of one of the hostages, Israeli-American Edan Alexander. Speaking under duress, Alexander blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, saying: “The prime minister is supposed to protect his soldiers and citizens, and you abandoned us.”
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Sullivan said the video was “a cruel reminder of the brutality of Hamas and the fact that they are holding so many hostages from so many countries.”
Hamas unleashed war with Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages in the attack 14 months ago.
Israel says about a third of the roughly 100 remaining hostages could be dead.
In its counteroffensive, Israel has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, more than half women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not specify how many of the dead were combatants. Israel, without providing evidence, claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants.
Sullivan called the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which has largely held, “a huge step forward in the Middle East… the opportunity for people to finally be able to return to their homes in Israel and in Lebanon.”
He said the United States, France and other allies “will work together with the Lebanese Armed Forces through a mechanism to ensure that the ceasefire is effectively implemented. Our goal is to get through these early days, which are critical for a ceasefire when it is most fragile, fully consolidate it, and then ultimately build on it so that it becomes the permanent ceasefire that it is intended to be.”
Whether the pact between Israel and Hezbollah will result in a ceasefire in Gaza remains uncertain.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent much of the last year trying to negotiate a ceasefire in the Strip and the release of remaining hostages. But talks have been stalled, as Israel rejects Hamas’s demand for a full withdrawal from the territory, while demanding that any vestiges of Hamas control in the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea be eliminated.
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US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end wars in the Middle East, without explaining how, and has pressured Israel to end its fight against Hamas before he takes office on January 20.
Trump, like Biden, has been a strong defender of Israel’s right to defend itself.
On the Gaza war front, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees announced Sunday that it is halting aid deliveries through the main cargo crossing into Gaza due to the threat of armed gangs who have looted recent convoys. . The agency blamed the collapse of law and order on Israeli policies. Israel had no immediate comment.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main aid provider in Gaza, said the route leading to the Kerem Shalom crossing is too dangerous in the Gaza side. Gunmen looted about 100 trucks traveling the route in mid-November, adding that gangs stole a smaller shipment on Saturday.
Kerem Shalom is the only crossing between Israel and Gaza designed for cargo shipments and has been the main route for aid deliveries since the Rafah crossing with Egypt was closed in May.
Last month, nearly two-thirds of all aid entering Gaza passed through Kerem Shalom, and in previous months it accounted for even more, according to Israeli figures.
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In a post on the Hamas-led police force, which had previously provided public security.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least six people overnight, including two young children, ages 6 and 8, in the tent where their family was sheltering, medical officials reported Sunday.
The attack in the Muwasi area, a sprawling tent camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, also injured the children’s mother and their 8-month-old sister, according to Nasser Hospital.
In another conflict in the Middle East, the Syrian army sent reinforcements to prevent insurgents from advancing further after they took Aleppo in a surprise offensive.
The insurgents took most of the Syrian city on Saturday and claimed to have entered the city of Hama.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to the Syrian capital Damascus later on Sunday. He told reporters that Tehran will support the Syrian government and army.
The insurgents’ rapid offensive is an embarrassment for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and comes at a time when his allies — Iran, its militant groups and Russia — are busy with their own conflicts.
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