Palestinian group, Hamas, accused the US on Wednesday of being complicit in Israel’s war of “genocide” on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.
“The US administration and (President Joe) Biden are full partners in the Israeli Occupation’s genocidal war against our people in Gaza,” senior group leader, Ezzat Al-Rishq said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Biden said that the ball is now “in the hands of Hamas” to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
“It’s in the hands of Hamas right now. Israelis have been cooperating. There’s been a rational offer. We will know in a couple of days what’s gonna happen. We need a ceasefire,” Biden told reporters
Al-Rishq said the airdropping of humanitarian aid in Gaza “will not improve the US tarnished image”.
US media reported, on Wednesday, that Washington has submitted a draft UN Security Council resolution to back an “immediate ceasefire of roughly six weeks in Gaza, together with the release of all hostages.”
The move comes as indirect talks in Egypt between Hamas and Israel have failed to make a breakthrough on a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The US, Israel’s main ally, has vetoed three draft resolutions presented by several countries in the UN Security Council in recent months for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive, now in its 152nd day, on the Gaza Strip since a 7 October Hamas attack, which Tel Aviv said killed nearly 1,200 people.
However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.
More than 30,700 Palestinians have since been killed and over 72,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
The Israeli war has pushed 85 pr cent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
OPINION: The occupation state is using starvation in Gaza to deceive everyone