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Kirby: Biden won't let "extremists" derail Gaza talks

2024-08-09 22:34:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

President Joe Biden's administration will not allow "extremists," including Israel, to derail ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday. Kirby accused Israel's Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, of making false claims.

He said Smotrich's claims that the Gaza ceasefire deal would mean surrendering to Hamas - the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the US and the EU - or that hostages should not be exchanged for prisoners, were "completely wrong". Smotrich is misleading the Israeli people, according to Kirby.

The United States and its allies have been trying for months to get the parties back to the negotiating table for a ceasefire in the now 10-month-old war in Gaza, but have faced repeated obstacles from Israel and Hamas.

U.S. officials believe the latest proposal is the closest the two sides have come to agreeing to release women, the sick and the elderly held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack, in exchange for at least a six-week-long ceasefire. .

"We want to reach an agreement. We believe it is still possible to achieve this... but it will take leadership on both sides, as well as compromises,” Kirby said.

On Thursday, the United States, Qatar and Egypt - which are brokering the talks - called on Israel and Hamas to resume ceasefire talks.

Through a joint statement, the US, Qatar and Egypt invited the parties involved in the conflict to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo "in order to overcome the differences and start implementing the agreement without delay".

Kirby said some critics, such as Smotrich, have claimed that the hostage deal is "a surrender to Hamas or that hostages should not be exchanged for [Palestinian] prisoners," and that the war should continue indefinitely.

"These arguments are completely wrong," Kirby said. Israel says its aim is to destroy Hamas, after the October 7 attack, in which militants from Gaza swept into southern Israel and killed 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250 others. After a round of exchanges in November, Israel says a further 111 hostages are being held in Gaza, including the dead bodies of 39 hostages.

Israel's war in Gaza has since left nearly 40,000 Palestinians dead and more than 91,700 wounded.

More than 1.9 million people out of a total population of 2.3 million in pre-war Gaza have been forced to flee their homes, constantly moving across the tiny territory to escape the war./ Rel