The White House is in receipt of Hamas’s reply to Israel’s proposed ceasefire deal and is evaluating it now, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday afternoon less than an hour after negotiators reported Hamas’s response.
Kirby declined to provide a detailed answer on Hamas’s response saying he didn’t want to get ahead of the White House’s evaluation.
The White House’s assumption is that Hamas’s response delivered to Qatar came with Yaha Sinwar‘s approval, according to Kirby.
“If we can get this deal in place, the fighting stops in phase one. The fighting stops all across Gaza,” Kirby said. “That’s how you get the hostages out safely.”
600 trucks daily
Phase one is how hopefully up to 600 aid trucks a day could enter Gaza, Kirby said, and a sustainable calm could potentially lead to phase two which could lead to a total cessation of hostilities.
Kirby also declined to confirm reporting from the Wall Street Journal which revealed messages written by Hamas leader Sinwar to various Hamas officials and hostage deal mediators.
However, Kirby did call the messages revealed by the Wall Street Journal “certainly not uncharacteristic” of the brutality that Sinwar is capable of and the willingness he has shown himself capable of since the beginning of trying to advance his own agenda on the backs of innocent Palestinians living in Gaza.
“It should underscore and be a reminder to everybody how this war started and how quickly it could end if Mr. Sinwar didn’t have these predilections and would do the right thing,” Kirby said.
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