US to push for Gaza ceasefire despite assassination setback

It does not appear to have an alternative path, even as risks of wider Mid-East conflict escalate

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US officials are still pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza but concede it is harder than ever after a suspected Israeli strike killed a top Hamas leader in Tehran, according to people familiar with the Biden administration's thinking.

The viability of the months-long US effort to secure a pause in the Israel-Hamas war and free Israeli hostages was thrown into question after an attack in Tehran early on July 31 killed Ismail Haniyeh, the group's political chief and a key representative during rounds of so far futile negotiations.

"This attack, while justified, will be a setback for talks," said Ms Emily Harding, a former director for Iran on the US National Security Council who is now an expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

"Israel has been under tremendous pressure to bring home the remaining hostages, so they must have calculated that the operational benefit of killing Haniyeh was greater than the prospect of successful hostage exchange."

Key Arab nations involved in the ceasefire talks also said the killing complicates efforts to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas, which the US has designated a terrorist organisation.

Egypt, which has acted as a mediator, said the timing and lack of progress on the talks indicate "the absence of Israeli political will to calm the situation".