US urges Hamas to agree to hostage release deal with Israel

WASHINGTON

The US urged Hamas on Monday to agree to a hostage release deal with Israel which would also include a six-week cease-fire in Gaza ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"It's essential to see a temporary cease-fire as part of this hostage deal. We call on Hamas to accept the terms that are on the table right now, whereby the release of vulnerable hostages, the sick, wounded, elderly women...will result in an immediate six-week cease-fire and enable the surge of humanitarian assistance," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby during an online briefing.

"Israel has agreed to this framework, and now the onus is on Hamas to do the same," he added.

Asked whether the White House believes it is possible to get a deal before Ramadan, on March 10, Kirby expressed hope.

"We certainly are hopeful, and that's the goal here -- to get this done as soon as possible -- and we certainly would like to see it done before Ramadan begins," he said.

He said the cease-fire would help reduce some of the civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure as well as enable a "multi-tiered approach of getting hostages out" and an increase in humanitarian assistance.

Harris-Gantz meeting

Earlier in the day, Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli war cabinet member and opposition leader Benny Gantz in Washington.

Ahead of their meeting, Harris said that she and Gantz would discuss getting the hostage deal done, getting aid in and “getting that six-week cease-fire.”

“The president has been an extraordinary leader in getting us to this point that we have the six-week deal," she said. "We all want this conflict to end as soon as possible, and how it does matters."

Delegations from Hamas, Qatar and the US are reportedly in Cairo to resume a new round of cease-fire negotiations in the Gaza Strip.

With Qatari, Egyptian and US mediation, a deal between Hamas and Israel was reached for a week until Dec. 1, during which prisoners were exchanged amid a cease-fire and very limited humanitarian aid was allowed into Gaza.

Israel currently estimates that there are approximately 136 Israeli hostages in Gaza, while it holds no less than 8,800 Palestinians in its prisons, according to official sources from both parties.

However, Hamas later announced the killing of 70 hostages as a result of the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed 30,534 people and injured 71,920 others with mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.