The US is in contact with the leadership of the Palestinian militant group Hamas via Qatar, a diplomatic source told Sputnik.
This comes after White House spokesman John Kirby said Washington was opposed to a cease-fire in Gaza because it would allegedly benefit Hamas.
For his part, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a senior member of Hamas, argued that the US took over the leadership of the fighting in Gaza after the collapse of the Israeli army in the confrontation with the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam military brigades.
In a separate development, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, told a UN Security Council meeting that "more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza every day."
According to him, this "surpasses the number of children killed annually across the world’s conflict zones since 2019." Lazzarini warned that "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire has become a matter of life and death for millions," adding that “the present and future of Palestinians and Israelis depend on it."
He spoke as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that they were expanding their ground incursion into Gaza and would continue their "large-scale, significant strikes" in pursuit of Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in turn, made it clear that his country would not agree to a cease-fire, saying, "This is a time for war''.
On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise large-scale attack on Israel from Gaza, breaching the border and firing scores of rockets. Israel retaliated with air strikes and ordered and imposed a blockade on Gaza, home to more than two million people.