US slams Israel's Smotrich as 'extremist' trying to torpedo Gaza truce deal

The Biden administration will not allow "extremists," including in Israel, to push Gaza ceasefire talks off course, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has said, accusing Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of making false claims.

Kirby said on Friday that Smotrich's claims that a ceasefire deal would be a surrender to Hamas resistance group or that hostages should not be exchanged for prisoners are "dead wrong," and said the minister was misleading the Israeli public.

"We want to get a deal. We believe that it's possible to do that ... But it's going to require some leadership on all sides here and some compromises," Kirby told reporters.

"We've seen some statements from some quarters in Israel over recent days attacking the deal. I just want to underscore how long this is, not only in substance, but also jeopardising the lives of the hostages, and running cattle to Israel's own national security interests," Kirby added.

"Some critics, like Mr. Smotrich, for example, have claimed that the hostage deals surrendered to Hamas, or that hostages should not be exchanged for (Palestinian) prisoners. Mr. Smotrich which essentially suggests that the war ought to go on indefinitely without pause and with the lives of the hostages of no real concern at all," he added.

According to Kirby, Smotrich's arguments are "dead wrong" and "misleading the Israeli public."

"The idea that (Biden) would support a deal that leaves Israel's security at risk is just factually wrong. It's outrageous. It's absurd," he said.

"I call on the prime minister (Netanyahu) not to fall into this trap and not to agree to a move, even the slightest one, from the red lines he set just recently, and which are also very problematic."

Smotrich on Friday said a potential Gaza ceasefire deal would be a "dangerous trap where 'mediators' dictate terms to us and impose a surrender agreement,"​ demanding ​hawkish ally and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to "fall into this trap."

Earlier this week, Smotrich said that the death of two million Palestinians in blockaded Gaza from hunger might be "justified and moral."

Smotrich, a religious fundamentalist and an illegal settler arsonist, has been telling families of Israeli hostages that he cannot commit to bringing all captives home alive from besieged Gaza.

Netanyahu's office announced that on August 15, Israel would be dispatching its negotiation team to finalise the details of truce and hostage-prisoner swap agreement with Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza.

It came after leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the US called on Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations in Doha or Cairo.

US, which has funded Israel's wars and is accused of being complicit in genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, believes the latest proposal is the closest the parties have been to an agreement to free women, sick and elderly hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October last year in exchange for at least six weeks of ceasefire.

Genocidal war

Israel has waged a brutal invasion on Gaza since Hamas' October 7 blitz on Israeli military and settlements that were once Arab villages and farms.

Hamas says its raid that surprised its arch-enemy was orchestrated in response to Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank and to put Palestine question "back on the table."

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas fighters rolled into as many as 22 locations outside Gaza, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza fence.

At some places they are said to have gunned down many soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster response. The hours-long attack and Israeli military's haphazard response including controversial Hannibal Directive resulted in the killing of more than 1,130 people.

Palestinian fighters took more than 250 hostages and presently 115 remain in Gaza, including dozens who the Israeli army and Hamas say are dead, many of them killed in indiscriminate Israeli strikes.

Israel has since then killed more than 40,000 Palestinians — majority of them babies, women and children — and wounded more than 92,000 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

More than 10,000 Palestinians have perished under the debris of bombed homes while some 10,000 Palestinians have been abducted by Israeli troops.

Some 45 American physicians, surgeons and nurses, who have volunteered in Gaza since October say the likely death toll from Israel's genocidal war is "already greater than 92,000".

According to a study published in the journal Lancet, the accumulative effects of Israel's war on Gaza could mean the true death toll could reach more than 186,000 people.

Around 90 percent of Gaza's 2.4 million people have fled their homes. Severe hunger is widespread, and UN officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

US never holds back in arming Israel, regardless of alarming Gaza civilian casualties. The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military dole and often shields its ally at the United Nations and other forums.