Following the meeting between Minister Benny Gantz and US Vice President Kamala Harris last night, White House officials pressed Israel for a unilateral ceasefire without a hostage deal.
However, this morning (Tuesday) the American administration clarified that "a ceasefire will only be within the framework of a hostage deal", according to Amichai Stein of Kan News.
On Sunday, Harris told an audience at a commemorative event for the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama that: "Palestinian suffering in Gaza must end through the increase of food shipments and a six-week ceasefire coupled with a hostage deal."
“People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhuman, and our common humanity compels us to act. As President Joe Biden said the US is committed to urgently get more life-saving assistance to innocent Palestinians in need," she added during the event.
According to him, the American administration is very concerned about the humanitarian crisis that has worsened in the Gaza Strip over the past days. "They are in a state of starvation, they are eating animal food," Vice President Harris was quoted as saying during her press conference.
Gantz's message during the night's meetings in the United States was: "You need to step up your pressure on Egypt and Qatar to make Hamas flex. You have the ability to pressure and they have the tools."
Representatives of the mediating countries reportedly asked Hamas to release a few individual abductees in exchange for a few days of ceasefire to demonstrate their intentions of eventually releasing the rest of the hostages. Hamas responded negatively to the offer, but officials are still trying to convince the terrorist group to sign the deal.
"This is a move that can show Israel that Hamas knows where the abductees are and that they are serious about the deal," they said.
On Sunday, hostages negotiations hit a snag when Hamas turned down an Israeli offer.
Israeli officials announced that they would not be attending a summit in Cairo after Qatar told them that the terrorist group was not willing to supply a list of hostages to be freed in the deal and a timetable for the release.
The decision came despite a senior member of the Biden administration claiming that Israel had agreed to an outline that included a 6-week ceasefire and the release of hostages.
According to the same American source, "(Hamas leader) Islmail Haniyeh spoke with the Emir of Qatar about the details of the deal and they are working around the clock to make this happen both to increase humanitarian aid and save the lives of the abductees. The ball is in Hamas's court, and they continue to push with all their might."