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US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller spoke a day after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down despite domestic and international pressure following the recovery by Israel’s military of six hostages from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“There are dozens of hostages still remaining in Gaza, still waiting for a deal that will bring them home. It is time to finalise that deal,” Miller said.
“The people of Israel cannot afford to wait any longer. The Palestinian people, who are also suffering the terrible effects of this war, cannot afford to wait any longer. The world cannot afford to wait any longer.”
Miller said Washington would work “over the coming days” with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar “to push for a final agreement”.
John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesman, echoed this sentiment, saying, “we believe we can close this” truce deal.
Egypt on Tuesday rejected accusations its Gaza border was being used to arm Hamas, and accused Netanyahu of seeking to “distract Israeli public opinion and obstruct reaching a ceasefire deal”.
“We are opposed to the long-term presence of IDF troops in Gaza,” Miller said, referring to Israel’s military.
Hamas has long demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and Egyptian officials have objected to an Israeli military presence on the border.
Israeli attacks kill 35 Gazans
Israeli forces killed at least 35 Palestinians across Gaza Tuesday , Palestinian officials said, but brief pauses in fighting allowed medics to conduct a third day of polio vaccinations for children.
Among those killed were four women in the southern city of Rafah and eight people near a hospital in Gaza City in the north, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.
Later Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians inside a house near Omar Al-Mokhtar Street in the middle of Gaza City, medics said.
Others were killed in separate air strikes across the territory, medics said.
Israel’s campaign has so far killed at least 40,819 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
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