Gaza hostage deal ‘may never happen’
US officials now believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is unlikely before President Biden leaves office in January, according to a report.
The Wall Street Journal said top-level officials in the White House, State Department and the Pentagon are not expecting a breakthrough in talks between the two sides, who have been fighting a bitter war in Gaza since Hamas’s terror attack against Israel on October 7.
“No deal is imminent,” one of the US officials said. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”
Officials have for months said that a ceasefire and deal to release Israeli hostages taken by Hamas were close.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90 per cent of the ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.
Last month US officials briefed that a deal was “in the endgame” and seemed possible within days.
The departments cited in The Wall Street Journal report did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sabrina Singh, Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday before the report was published: “I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart”.
The US and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months tried to secure a ceasefire in the conflict that is estimated to have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians.
Two obstacles have been especially difficult: Israel’s demand to keep forces in the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt, and the specifics of an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The US has said a Gaza ceasefire deal could lower tensions across the Middle East amid fears the conflict could widen.
Mr Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal on May 31 that he said at the time was agreed to by Israel. As the talks hit obstacles, officials have for weeks said a new proposal would soon be presented.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has displaced 2.3 million people and prompted genocide allegations at the International Criminal Court that Israel denies.
