U.S Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director, William Burns has averred that there is “still a possibility” of a Gaza ceasefire deal, although many complicated issues remain.
He said at a U.S House of Representatives hearing, “I think there’s still the possibility of such a deal.”
“And as I said, it won’t be for lack of trying on our part, working very closely with our Israeli, Qatari, and Egyptian counterparts,” he added.
“This is a very tough process. I don’t think anyone can guarantee success. The only thing I think you can guarantee is that the alternatives are worse.”
William Burns
Negotiations to achieve a truce in the Gaza war looked promising in the past few weeks, but have lagged in recent days.
Hamas and Israel both accuse each other of inflexibility.
Meanwhile, four US Army vessels departed a base in the US state of Virginia, carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment needed to build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast for desperately needed aid deliveries.
U.S President, Joe Biden, in his recent state of the union address, announced plans to construct a temporary pier near Gaza in order to deliver aid.
US Army Brigadier-General, Brad Hinson told journalists that the new facility, which will consist of an offshore platform for transshipment of aid from larger to smaller vessels and a pier to bring it ashore, is expected to be up and running “at the 60-day mark.”
Hinson disclosed that about 500 troops from the 7th Transportation Battalion (Expeditionary) will take part in the operation, describing it as “the premier watercraft unit in our Army.”
“They can provide sustainment support over the water in austere environments. They are trained to do this, and they’ve gone on many exercises to be ready to provide this capability,” he said.
With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing starvation, the plan has been criticised while Israel refuses to fully open land crossings for aid deliveries.
In a joint statement, UN Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag and UN Office for Project Services Executive Director, Jorge Moreira da Silva praised the US’s recently announced plan to establish a maritime aid corridor to bring much-needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
However, the statement said, “For aid delivery at scale, there is no meaningful substitute to the many land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza. The land routes from Egypt, Rafah – in particular, and Jordan also remain essential to the overall humanitarian effort.”
“The maritime corridor brings, however, much-needed additionality and is part of a sustained humanitarian response to provide aid as effectively as possible through all possible routes,” it continued.
The U.S plan has been criticised as a distraction from the continued refusal of Israel to remove restrictions on aid entering Gaza by land.
“It seems to be just another effort to divert attention from the real issue here, which is that 700,000 people are starving in north Gaza now, and Israel is not allowing humanitarian aid to them or the rest of the Gaza Strip,” Mustafa Barghouti, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, asserted.
Biden Unsupportive Of Rafah Invasion Without Plan
White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan told reporters that Biden would not support an Israeli invasion of Rafah without a clear plan to protect the displaced Palestinians currently sheltering there.
Sullivan insisted that Biden believes that the path to peace and stability in the region “does not lie in smashing into Rafah, where there are 1.3 million people, in the absence of a credible plan to deal with the population there.”
Sullivan added that the White House has yet to see a credible plan to do so.
The notion that Israel should not invade Rafah without such a plan is an often repeated line by U.S officials.
However, they have not offered any concrete consequences for Israel should it proceed with its planned operation.
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