2023-11-20 01:11:07
According to the US government, an agreement to free many hostages in the Gaza Strip might be imminent. We are currently closer to an agreement “than we have perhaps ever been since these negotiations began weeks ago.”US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said on US television on Sunday. “There are areas where the differences of opinion have been reduced, if not completely eliminated.” However, Finer made it clear that they had not yet reached their goal: “There is currently no agreement; we will continue to negotiate intensively in the coming hours and days.”
Finer did not provide any information on the number of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He also did not specify how many of them might be released if an agreement were reached. “We have no precise information regarding the exact number of hostages, nor regarding the number of those still alive. But we believe there are significant numbers of Americans being held,” he said. These are “top priority” for the US government. Among them is a three-year-old girl whose parents were killed in the Islamist Hamas massacre on October 7th. Around 240 people were also kidnapped into the Gaza Strip.
US President Joe Biden published a long opinion piece on the conflict in the Middle East in the Washington Post on Saturday. In it he made it clear once once more that he rejected a ceasefire. “As long as Hamas sticks to its ideology of destruction, a ceasefire is not peace,” he wrote. Hamas would only use the time to rearm. Instead, the USA is relying on shorter ceasefires, which are also intended to free hostages. (sda/dpa)
1700443641
#Hamas #break #hostage #release #supposedly #Monday
