SEOUL — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced confidence Monday that a ceasefire deal in Gaza would come together, but possibly after President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20.

 

Blinken, who tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully last year to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, said that the Biden administration "will work every minute of every day" until the end of its term to secure a hostage deal.

 

"We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks," Blinken told reporters on a visit to Seoul.

 

"If we don't get it across the finish line in the next two weeks, I'm confident that it will get its completion at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later," Blinken said.

 

"When it does, it will be on the basis of the plan that President Biden put forward and that virtually the entire world supports."

 

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes over on January 20, has vowed even stronger support for Israel and has warned Hamas of "hell to pay" if it does not free hostages seized in the October 7, 2023 attack.

 

A Hamas official said Sunday the group was ready to free 34 hostages in the "first phase" of a potential deal with Israel, which said that indirect talks had resumed in Qatar.

 

Blinken said there had been an "intensified engagement" by Hamas on reaching a deal, but that it was not yet complete.

 

"We need Hamas to make the final necessary decisions to complete the agreement and to fundamentally change the circumstance for the hostages, getting them out, for people in Gaza, bringing them relief, and for the region as a whole, creating an opportunity to actually move forward to something better," Blinken said.

 

Gunmen opened fire Monday on a bus and other vehicles near a village in the occupied West Bank, killing three people and wounding seven, the Israeli occupation authorities said.

 

 

The military told AFP that all three of the dead held Israeli citizenship, and said troops were "pursuing the terrorists" who carried out the attack near the village of Al Funduq.

 

Since the Gaza war began, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 818 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.

 

Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 25 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.