National Security Spokesperson John Kirby clarifies Biden’s comments, says US does not support a ceasefire at this time because it would only benefit Hamas.
Israel National NewsJan 10, 2024, 5:09 AM (GMT+2)
White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby on Tuesday clarified that the US is not currently in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza.The comments followed President Joe Biden’s comments on Monday that he has been “quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.”“Nothing has changed about our view that we don’t support a ceasefire at this time. There’s no change to that because we don’t believe that benefits anybody but Hamas. We continue to support humanitarian pauses. The president wasn’t signaling any change at all,” Kirby clarified on Tuesday.
On the claims that journalists were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, Kirby stressed that “We’ve seen no indication that Israel is [maliciously attempting to kill journalists]. We continue to stand by the protection of journalists anywhere in the war, certainly when covering conflict.”
Israel temporarily paused the fighting in November as part of a deal with Hamas which saw the terrorist organization release some of the hostages it has been holding since its October 7 attack on Israel.
However, Israel announced the renewal of fighting in Gaza after Hamas violated the terms of the operational pause by failing to forward a list of hostages to be freed and by firing rockets towards southern Israel.
Kirby acknowledged at the time that Hamas was to blame for the end of the pause in fighting in Gaza.
Recently, there have been reports that Israel and Hamas resumed indirect negotiations in an attempt to reach another deal for the release of hostages in exchange for a pause in the fighting. However, the talks have yet to achieve results.
Content retrieved from: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/383344.