White House says intense Israel-Hezbollah clashes did not affect cease-fire talks

WASHINGTON

Intense cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah over the weekend did not affect ongoing negotiations to secure a cease-fire in the besieged Gaza Strip, the White House said Monday.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby described Hezbollah's drone and rocket attacks as "sizeable," saying it was "different in scope than what we tend to see on a daily basis between Israel and Hezbollah." Still, he maintained that there was "not an impact on the talks in Cairo, and we're certainly glad to see that."

Kirby said the type of attack that occurred overnight Saturday "was the kind of thing" that Washington had been raising the alarm over in recent weeks. The barrage began after Israel carried out what it described as pre-emptive airstrikes on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.

Kirby said negotiators seeking to broker a cease-fire and prisoner-swap deal are continuing talks in Cairo, Egypt in "working group" formats after meeting over the weekend. Brett McGurk, US President Joe Biden's senior official for the Middle East, remained in the Egyptian capital through Monday to help the process move forward, and is slated to depart later in the day.

All of the parties, including Israel and Hamas, are being represented in the talks, expected to run through the next few days.

"I think it's safe to say that the issues they're going to be talking about are of a much more detailed, specific nature than we've typically been able to talk about," Kirby told reporters during a virtual briefing. "The working groups are now meeting and talking, and so, there continues to be progress, and our team on the ground continues to describe the talks as constructive."

He identified the exchange of prisoners between Hamas and Israel as one of the issues that negotiators will address, including the number of individuals that are to be freed, and who they will be, as well as what pace they be released.

Israel has faced international condemnation over its brutal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 40,400 people since last year when Hamas led a cross-border attack on Israel. Over 93,500 Palestinians have been injured.

Hamas' attack resulted in 1,139 people being killed. About 250 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.

Roughly 1.9 million Palestinians are currently internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, water and medicine.