Israel has “more or less” agreed to a truce deal in Gaza, now putting the ball “in Hamas’s court”, a US official said on Saturday, as the US began airdrops of humanitarian aid on Palestinian territory.
“There is a deal on the table. The Israelis more or less accepted it. And a six-week ceasefire could begin today in Gaza if Hamas agrees to release a well-defined category of vulnerable hostages,” the US official said.
He said that, for now, “discussions continued” to seal an agreement before the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, in a week.
“There has been significant progress in recent weeks, but as always, there is no agreement until everything is decided,” added this senior official, who requested anonymity.
“The Israelis accepted in principle the elements of the agreement,” he insisted.
He clarified that the six-week truce was designed as a “first phase”, with the objective of achieving “something more lasting”, in particular to be able to massively increase humanitarian aid.
The United States carried out airdrops of aid to Gaza for the first time on Saturday, delivering more than 38,000 meals, the US military said.
Nearly five months of war in the Gaza Strip, bombed and besieged by the Israeli army, have caused a serious humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, threatened with famine according to the UN.
The American airdrops come two days after an aid distribution turned into a tragedy.
The health ministry of Hamas, in power in Gaza, accuses the Israeli army of having killed 115 people by shooting at a hungry crowd rushing towards aid trucks. The Israeli army acknowledged “limited shooting” and claimed that most of the victims died in a “stampede”.
38,000 meals
Three U.S. military planes dropped packages containing these more than 38,000 meals Saturday afternoon local time in Gaza, in cooperation with Jordan, the U.S. Middle East Military Command (Centcom) said.
The latter added that he was working to plan “potential subsequent aid delivery missions”.
US President Joe Biden declared on Friday that Washington would imminently join “Jordan and other countries in airdrops of food and other goods” on Gaza.
The spokesperson for the National Security Council, John Kirby, then clarified that it would not be a unique operation.
“Other drops will be planned and executed” by the Pentagon, he said, emphasizing their “extremely difficult” nature due to the population density in Gaza.
Joe Biden also mentioned on Friday “the possibility of a maritime corridor to transport large quantities of aid”.
But these two options — air drops and deliveries by sea — “cannot replace the necessary entry of aid by as many land routes as possible,” warned a senior American official on Saturday.
Until now, the United States, Israel’s primary supporter, had not carried out such airdrops, judging their effectiveness to be limited.
But Washington has been complaining to Israel for weeks about the insufficient humanitarian aid provided to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
In the middle of the electoral campaign in the United States, President Joe Biden, candidate for a second term, is also under pressure from the left wing of his party and the Muslim community and of Arab origin for his support for Israel.