By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - The US remains hopeful that a Gaza cease-fire and hostage exchange deal can be reached “in the coming weeks” with ongoing efforts to bridge final differences between the parties, the State Department said Tuesday.
Addressing reporters at the Foreign Press Center, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller underscored the urgency of reaching an agreement, expressing frustration at the repeated setbacks in negotiations.
“We believe that we are at the point where we ought to be able to get to an agreement. The differences between the two parties really have been narrowed such that all remaining differences ought to be bridgeable,” Miller said.
However, he acknowledged the challenges, cautioning that previous negotiations had stalled despite appearing to be close to a resolution.
“That said, we have been here before and have not seen the parties come to an agreement,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Miller expressed "cautious optimism" about negotiations in Qatar’s capital Doha to secure a deal.
Israel, which according to prisoners’ groups has more than 10,000 Palestinians in its prisons, estimates that there are around 100 Israeli captives in Gaza.
The Palestinian group Hamas has said that 33 captives have been killed in indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to reach a cease-fire have so far failed due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war on Gaza.
Israel has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,000 people, most of them women and children, since an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.