The Wall Street Journal quotes several U.S. officials as saying they are skeptical that a ceasefire can be reached before January.
U.S. officials say a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper cited senior officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon on Thursday without naming them.
“There is no deal imminent. I’m not sure it will ever be done,” one of the U.S. officials told the newspaper.
Officials told the Journal that there were two major obstacles to a deal: the number of Palestinian prisoners Israel must release in exchange for each captive held by Hamas, and growing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Publicly, officials in Washington have stressed that they will continue to work to reach an agreement.
“I can tell you that we do not believe this deal is falling apart,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Thursday before the Wall Street Journal article was published.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90% of the terms of a ceasefire deal had been agreed.
Washington has been working for months with mediators from Qatar and Egypt to try to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.
On May 31, Biden presented a three-phase ceasefire proposal, saying Israel had accepted it. The United States holds its presidential election on November 5, with Vice President Kamala Harris running against Republican Donald Trump.
The latest bloodbath began nearly a year ago, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,139 people and taking more than 200 prisoners.
The Israeli offensive on Hamas-controlled territory has killed at least 41,272 Palestinians and injured 95,551 others. It has also led to the displacement of nearly the entire population, 2.3 million people, a food crisis and a genocide trial at the International Court of Justice.
