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A top US official is in the Middle East for talks aimed at securing a protracted ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas, the White House said on Tuesday.
Middle East envoy Brett McGurk is in Cairo for talks on a potential "humanitarian pause" and other issues including the provision of more humanitarian aid to Gaza, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Axios reported on Monday that through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Israel has proposed a two-month truce that will allow for all remaining hostages to be released. Experts say such a lengthy ceasefire would essentially signal the end of the conflict.
"Certainly one of the things [Mr McGurk] is in the region talking about is the potential for another hostage deal, which would require a humanitarian pause of some length to get that done," Mr Kirby said.
Mr Kirby said he did not want to predict the likelihood of a deal being struck but noted that talks were "sober and serious".
“If that would give us the opportunity to get hostages and get more aid in, we would absolutely support a humanitarian pause of longer length,” he added, without specifying the duration.
Mr Kirby said that Mr McGurk's agenda during his trip will include gaining an assessment of Israel's military operations and its efforts to protect civilians, as well as wider regional issues, such as efforts to reach a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In November, the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel negotiated a seven-day pause in the fighting, during which more than 100 hostages being held by Hamas were released in exchange for about 200 Palestinian detainees being held in Israeli prisons.
100 days of Israel Gaza war – in pictures
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Palestinian Muhammad Al Durra with his children in the ruins of a house in Rafah where they sheltered on January 11, 2024. EPA -
Family and friends at the funerals of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. Getty Images -
Palestinians mourn relatives killed by Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a mortuary in Khan Younis January 4, 2024. AP Photo -
Displaced Palestinians queue to bake bread at a camp in the Muwasi area of Rafah, Gaza Strip, on December 23, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians queue for food in Rafah, the Gaza Strip, on December 20, 2023. AP Photo -
The ruins of Rafah on December 14, 2023. AFP -
Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis on December 8, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians flee Israeli bombing along the Salaheddine Road in the Zeitoun district of Gaza city on November 28, 2023. AFP -
A Red Cross vehicle takes Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in Rafah on November 25, 2023. AP -
The ruins of buildings in Gaza city on November 24, 2023, as a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas took effect. AP Photo -
A woman and her cat return home to eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip during the first hours of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas forces on November 24, 2023. AFP -
Mourning the dead of Israeli bombardment outside the mortuary at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on November 14, 2023. AFP -
Civilians and rescuers look for survivors in the rubble of a building after Israeli bombing of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 12, 2023. AFP -
November 7, 2023, a month to the day after Hamas attacked Israel, a victim of an Israeli bombardment in Rafah is moved from the rubble. AFP -
Searching the rubble after Israeli air strikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 26, 2023. AP Photo -
Mourning the Kotz family at their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, on October 17, 2023. AP Photo -
An Israeli firefighter composes himself after he and his colleagues extinguished cars set on fire by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians with the wreckage of an Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of the city of Khan Younis on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas forces swept unopposed into Israel. AP Photo -
Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on October 7, 2023. AP Photo
About 130 hostages, most of them Israeli, are still being held in Gaza.
But efforts to bring about another pause in the fighting and the release of the remaining hostages have failed so far.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a deal presented by Hamas that would have led to the hostages being released in exchange for Israel's complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Pressure is mounting on world leaders to push for an end to the fighting, as Israeli bombardments have killed more than 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them children, and much of the coastal enclave has been reduced to rubble.
The territory's 2.3 million residents, the majority of whom have been squeezed into the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, face a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis.
For weeks, protesters have gathered outside Mr Netanyahu's residence demanding he secure the release of the remaining hostages.
Government and private analysts predict a ceasefire will happen sometime between now and the third week of February, said Michael Knights, a Middle East expert and the Jill and Jay Bernstein fellow at the Washington Institute.
This is due to the fact that there is little terrain remaining in Gaza that the Israeli military has not already seized.
“It’s a finite amount of physical space we’re talking about now,” Mr Knights told The National. “It’s very obvious that the Israelis, at the present rate, are going to control the entire surface area of the Gaza Strip within two weeks.”
He also noted that the relationship between the Israeli government and the Biden administration has become tense as US domestic opposition to the war grows.
“Everyone’s reaching the end of their tether but luckily, the Israelis are also reaching the end of their operations,” he said, adding that any two-month ceasefire would inevitably become permanent.
