President Donald Trump stated on Friday that he expects a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict to be achieved within a week.
Speaking from the Oval Office during the signing of a peace accord between Congo and Rwanda, Mr Trump said he had earlier been speaking with people involved in reaching a truce in the 20-month-old war, News.Az reports citing The National.
He added that the US was supplying money and food to the war ravaged coastal enclave.
“We're involved because people are dying and I look at those crowds of people that have no food, no anything, and we're the ones that are getting it there,” he said.
Mr Trump's comments follow months of stalled efforts to bring an end to the war in Gaza that ignited on October 7, 2023, after the Iranian-backed group Hamas attacked Israel.
It also comes days after the Trump administration conducted strikes on Iran's three nuclear sites.
At least 54,084 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war's start, and much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble.
A brief ceasefire that was reached in January – a day before Mr Trump took office – collapsed in March.
Israel moved to block the entry of food aid and assistance, compounding the suffering of the approximately two million Gaza residents who are facing dire food shortages.
The Trump administration advanced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private aid group, to address the concerns over famine in the Strip.
But the group has drawn intense scrutiny after scenes of chaos and bloodshed unfolded at aid distribution sites.
Since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near GHF its four aid centres while seeking food, according to local health authorities.
The GHF, backed by Israel and the US, has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points. They say they've handed out more than 46 million meals.
The UN and other aid groups have refused to work with the GHF, calling them a “death trap.”
“The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA).
“This abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including UNRWA,” he wrote on X.
The US State Department on Thursday said that it is providing $30 million in direct funding to the group.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Thursday published a report quoting unnamed soldiers saying they were ordered to deliberately fire live bullets at crowds near distribution centres to disperse them, even when they posed no threat.
