WASHINGTON: The White House on Friday said that fresh talks in Cairo on reaching a Gaza ceasefire have made progress as it urged Israel and Hamas to move forward.
The White House confirmed that CIA chief William Burns and senior official Brett McGurk were attending the talks which started at a preliminary level on Thursday evening.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that there has been progress made but both sides need to come together and work toward implementation.
“The preliminary talks that we had going into Cairo last night were constructive in nature. So we want to see that same sort of momentum continue here over the next couple of days,” he said.
Kirby added that reports that the diplomacy was “near collapse” were not correct.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week visited the Middle East and said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was onboard with a US proposal to bridge differences and reach a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict.
Kirby said that the United States believes that Netanyahu accepted the proposal. Kirby again appealed to Hamas to accept the proposal.
“Think about what this deal will do for the people of Gaza. It gets them a period of calm and a potential end of the war and the violence and the bloodshed,” Kirby said.
Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its 322nd day, has killed at least 40,265 Palestinians mostly women and children and injured over 93,144 others.
US President Joe Biden has also asked Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of captives.
