The US is working “very hard” to temper “unnecessary provocations” from Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas as the White House seeks to protect the fragile truce it mediated to end the two-year war in Gaza.
The comments from two senior White House advisers came as Israel said it had received the bodies of two more hostages from Gaza, as part of the US-brokered deal, which hinges partly on Hamas rapidly releasing of the bodies of dead captives. The bodies were due to undergo forensic identification, the Israeli military said late on Wednesday.
But the pace of the transfers has inflamed tensions and tested the tenuous truce, with Israel accusing Hamas of moving too slowly. The bodies of 19 Israeli hostages have yet to be handed over. Israel, which has said the militant group could be in violation of the ceasefire terms, has threatened to halve the amount of aid allowed into the still-besieged enclave.