US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated Washington is driving towards the "goal line" of getting a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip.
“We’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line on getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home, and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” Blinken told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
However, Blinken stated that the “last 10 yards are often the hardest”.
“So I don’t want to be in any way naive about it,” he added, acknowledging that some issues still need to be resolved.
“We continue to believe, that the quickest way to bring this war to an end to bring relief to the people of Gaza who so desperately need it to put Gaza itself to put the entire region on a better path is through an agreement on a cease-fire,” he continued.
Israel and Hamas have been engaged in indirect talks since January to reach an agreement that ends the war on Gaza and swaps prisoners.
Israel’s war on Gaza, now nearing its tenth month, has destroyed large swaths of the besieged territory.
More than 38,800 people have been killed, the great majority of them women and children. Thousands more are missing or presumed to be dead under the rubble.
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