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WASHINGTON: US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that it is Hamas, not Israel, that is standing in the way of a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sullivan, appearing on the CBS program “Face the Nation,” added that the US will make a judgment about the progress Israel has made over a letter that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote last month regarding humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Ceasefire talks mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled since the start of the year.
Qatar, which has served as a key mediator with Hamas, said over the weekend that it had suspended its efforts and would only resume them when “the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians.”
Israeli bombardment and ground invasions have left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and displaced around 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands of people are living in crowded tent camps with few if any, public services and no idea when they might return to their homes or rebuild.
Israeli forces have encircled and largely isolated Jabaliya and the nearby towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun for the past month, allowing in only a trickle of humanitarian aid.
Hundreds of people have been killed since the offensive began on Oct. 6, and tens of thousands of people have fled to nearby Gaza City.
An Israeli strike on Sunday on a home sheltering displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 17 people, according to the director of a nearby hospital that received the bodies.
Dr. Fadel Naim, director of the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, said the dead include nine women and that the toll was likely to rise as rescue efforts continue.
He said they were killed in a strike on a home in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp.
The military said it targeted a site where militants were operating without providing evidence.
It said the details of the strike are under review.
On Friday, experts from a panel that monitors food security said famine is imminent in the north or may already be happening.
The growing desperation comes as the deadline approaches for a request the US gave Israel to raise the level of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza or risk possible restrictions on US military funding.