'Hamas still exists as a viable threat,' White House says

The White House on Friday insisted that despite repeated Israeli assertions about degrading Hamas capabilities over the last 15 months of the war on Gaza, the group "still exists as a viable threat".

"You've got to talk to the [Israeli Defence Forces] about the missions they're conducting. No question that they have visited significant damage to Hamas's military capabilities, their ability to resource, to operate and to continue to conduct lethal attacks, but Hamas still exists as a viable threat," White Houe National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

"There are still Hamas fighters. There's still some Hamas infrastructure. Hamas still has some abilities, and I'll let the Israelis speak to the actions they've taken to mitigate the threat that Hamas poses," he added.

"Hamas started this war. Hamas put them in this position, and Hamas can easily end that suffering by signing on to this new hostage deal, which we are still trying to work to conclude."

Asked whether there is upcoming travel scheduled for US envoys involved in the ceasefire talks, Kirby only said that President Joe Biden "has made clear his national security team will be a participant all the way to the very end, and we're going to be doing everything we can to see if we can broker a new ceasefire deal again that will get the hostages home."

"We welcome Israel's decision to send another team to Doha," he added.