Government spokesman Avi Hayman said in a press conference before Hamdan spoke that the Islamic movement must “come down from its imaginary positions and enter our orbit.”
He added: “Hamas understands the military pressure and we are conveying it to them.”
Israeli female soldiers take a souvenir photo on the Gaza Strip border, southern Israel.credit: AFP Photos/Tsafrir Abayov
“If we reach a situation that lasts until Ramadan… it will be very dangerous,” Biden said.
Violence between Palestinians and Israelis in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories often escalates during Ramadan, as does hostility toward Israel in the Arab and Muslim world, creating a strong incentive for leaders to reach an agreement before that time.
Hamas says Washington's position aims to deflect blame from Israel if the talks collapse.
Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said that Hamas had submitted its own draft agreement and was awaiting a response from Israel, adding: “(Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu does not want to reach an agreement and the ball is now in the Americans’ court.” “
Palestinians rescue survivors after an Israeli raid on Rafah.credit: AP
A source had previously told Reuters that Israel would stay away because Hamas refused to provide a list of the names of the hostages who were still alive. Naeem said that this was impossible without a ceasefire, as the hostages were distributed across the war zone and held by separate groups.
The United States also urged Israel to do more to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, which began after Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people in October.
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“We must get more aid to Gaza,” Biden said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this also means “making sure it can reach the people who need it… The situation as it is now is simply unacceptable.”
Famine now looms in the Gaza Strip, where aid supplies, already sharply reduced since the start of the war, have dwindled to a trickle over the past month. Vast swaths of the region are completely cut off from food. Gaza's few functioning hospitals, already overwhelmed with the wounded, are now filled with children starving to death.
Ahmed Kenan, a little boy with sunken eyes and a gaunt face, lies on a bed in the Al Awda clinic in Rafah, wrapped in a yellow jacket. He has lost half his weight since the beginning of the war and now weighs only 6 kilograms.
Palestinian children receive treatment at a Kuwait hospital after Israeli air strikes on Rafah, on February 12.credit: GT
“His condition is getting worse every day. May God protect us from what is coming,” said his aunt, Israa Kalakh.
Nurse Diaa Al-Shaer said that such emaciated children are now arriving at the clinic in unprecedented numbers: “We will face a large number of patients suffering from this, which is malnutrition.”
The situation is worse in northern Gaza, out of the reach of relief agencies or news cameras. Health authorities in Gaza say that 15 children have died so far due to malnutrition or dehydration in a hospital.
The US military, in coordination with Jordan, dropped 36,000 meals into northern Gaza on Tuesday, a program Washington began last week. Relief agencies say this amount is small compared to the scale of hunger.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Biden said: “The United States is committed to doing everything we can to get more aid to those in Gaza who need it most. We will not stand idly by. We will not surrender.”
Israel says it is prepared to allow more aid in through the two checkpoints on the southern end of the Gaza Strip that it allowed open, and blames the United Nations and other relief agencies for failing to distribute it more widely.
The agencies say this has become impossible with the collapse of civil administration and law and order, and it is up to Israel, whose forces have stormed and patrolled Gaza towns, to provide access and security to distribute food.
“The feeling of helplessness and despair among parents and doctors when they realize that life-saving aid, just a few kilometers away, is out of reach must be unbearable,” said Adele Khader, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
