US says Hamas 'offered amendments' to truce deal as Israel chokes Rafah
US says Hamas ‘offered amendments’ to truce deal as Israel chokes Rafah
The US has said that Hamas has “offered amendments” to an Israeli deal for a ceasefire in Gaza as the Jewish state continues its military offensive in Rafah. The assault in the southern Gaza town, which had been a part of Israel’s plans for months to retake the last Hamas stronghold in the war-torn enclave, commenced on Tuesday hours after the Palestinian militant group accepted an Egypt-Qatar brokered agreement aimed at ending the seven-month war.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, White House spokesperson John Kirby said Hamas’s “amendments” to the Israeli truce proposal suggested that the “remaining gaps absolutely be closed”, Reuters news agency reported.
Kirby, however, did not emphasise what the “remaining gaps” were.
The White House spokesperson further said that mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar were meeting in Cairo to continue discussions to achieve a truce agreement. Meanwhile, Hamas has also confirmed that its delegation is also in the Egyptian capital city for the negotiations.
On Monday, Hamas announced that it had accepted the ceasefire deal. However, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement fell short of the country’s demands.
The Israeli military had issued evacuation orders to some 1 lakh residents of eastern Rafah after it struck the city on Monday in retaliation for a Hamas rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
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