Senior White House Official Admits Hamas-Israel Gaps Remain on Ceasefire Deal

John Kirby. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - Senior U.S. officials are in Cairo, Egypt for talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but gaps remain between the two sides, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.

Speaking at a briefing, Kirby said CIA Director Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk were in Egypt, meeting with their Egyptian, Israeli, and Jordanian counterparts on Monday.

However, Kirby said there would be further discussions in the coming days.

"We've worked very, very hard on this. And there are still some gaps remaining on both sides in the position, but we wouldn't have sent a team there if we didn't think we had a chance here," Kirby said, as reported by Reuters on July 9.

"We're trying to close those gaps as best we can," he added.

Last week, Hamas dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before the Palestinian movement would sign an agreement.

Instead, the militant group said it would allow negotiations to achieve that during the first six-week phase, a Hamas source said Saturday.

The move prompted an official on Israel’s negotiating team to say there was a real chance of reaching a deal.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the deal should not prevent Israel from continuing the fighting until it has achieved its wartime goal of eliminating Hamas, as it set out at the start of the war.

Kirby himself reiterated Washington’s long-standing position that Israel must do more to protect civilians.

It is known that the latest war in Gaza was triggered by an attack by a Palestinian militant group led by Hamas attacking southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and causing 250 others to be taken hostage, according to Israeli calculations.

Yesterday, Gaza health authorities confirmed that the death toll from the Israeli attack on October 7 had reached 38,193 people, and 87,903 others were injured, quoted from WAFA.

The authorities added that the majority of the victims were women and children. Meanwhile, ambulances and rescue teams have still not been able to reach many victims and bodies trapped under the rubble or scattered on the streets in the Palestinian enclave.