US President Joe Biden has called on the G20 to step up demands of Hamas for a ceasefire with Israel as he vowed to “keep pushing” for a deal in his last weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House.

In his opening remarks at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Biden said, “I ask everyone here to increase their pressure on Hamas, which is currently refusing this deal.”

In May, Hamas approved a proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war put forward by mediators; Qatar and Egypt – while Israel refused it, saying it fell short of its demands.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu told the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that Hamas only wants a truce deal so Israeli forces leave the Gaza Strip and it can return to power.

According to news reports, Netanyahu said Hamas “sees the pressure on Israel” and believes it can hold out for a better deal. He was reported as saying, “We’ve struck Hamas militarily, but we haven’t harmed their ruling capabilities enough.”

According to an Israeli news agency, Netanyahu said that he gave instructions for a plan to replace Hamas in the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza by Thursday.

Members of the committee also disclosed that the Prime Minister doesn’t believe a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon will be effective, which is why Israel is demanding “freedom of action” against Hezbollah.

Separately, the United States imposed sanctions on Israel’s Amana settler organisation, the Treasury Department’s website showed, targeting a group that has attacked Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank.

It noted that Amana is “a settlement development organisation that is involved with US-sanctioned individuals and outposts that perpetrate violence in the West Bank.” The group is also sanctioned by the United Kingdom and Canada.

According to the Treasury Department, the settlers and farms that Amana supports play a key role in developing settlements in the West Bank, from which in turn settlers commit violence. “More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts – which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure – to expand settlements and seize land,” the department added.

The US State Department also designated three Israelis and one entity with ties to violence in the occupied West Bank.

No More Words To Describe Middle East’s Situation

Also at the G20 summit, the European Union’s outgoing top Diplomat, Josep Borrell, says he has “no more words” to describe the situation in the Middle East before chairing his last planned meeting of the bloc’s Foreign Ministers.

Borrell told reporters, “I exhausted the words to explain what’s happening in the Middle East,” barely concealing his frustration at the EU’s failure to weigh in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his five-year mandate.

“There are no more words. It’s about 44,000 people killed in Gaza. The whole area is being destroyed, and 70 percent of the people being killed are women or children.

“The most frequent ages of casualties are children below nine years old.”
Josep Borrell

Borrell confirmed that he would urge Ministers to suspend a political dialogue with Israel — part of a wider agreement governing trade ties — over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Borrell’s proposal included the bloc suspending its political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war in Gaza, and saying that the EU has to “put pressure on the Israeli government.”

However, numerous member states, including key powers France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, are expected to give the proposal short shrift.