Efforts to extend a “pause” in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza failed in part because the Palestinian Islamist movement did not want some female hostages to reveal what they suffered, a US official said today.

Israel had halted its assault on Gaza under a deal brokered by Qatar and the United States that included the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7.

Israeli authorities said on Friday they were resuming their military operations as Hamas had not released all the female hostages.

“It appears that one of the reasons they don’t want to release women they’re holding hostage and that this moratorium has collapsed is that they don’t want those women to tell what happened to them while they’re being held,” State’s spokesman told reporters. Dept. Matthew Miller.

The spokesman declined to elaborate, stressing the sensitive nature of the question, but said the US had “no reason to doubt” the information about sexual violence attributed to Hamas. “There is very little that I believe Hamas cannot do when it comes to the treatment of civilians and especially the treatment of women,” he said.

At the same time, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States would continue to push for the release of more Hamas hostages in Gaza.

Sullivan, who said he had phone calls over the weekend about developments in Gaza, says Hamas is refusing to release female civilians.

– US expects Israel not to attack ‘safe’ zones for Gaza civilians –

The White House adviser also said during the press briefing that the US expects the Israeli armed forces to refrain from attacking areas that Israel has designated as “safe” zones in Gaza. “They have also indicated that there are areas where there will be ‘safe’ zones. And in those zones, we expect Israel to continue not to launch attacks,” he told reporters at the White House.

Sullivan also said the attacks on three ships in the Red Sea over the weekend posed a threat to international peace and stability. Washington has “every reason to believe that these attacks, despite the fact that they were launched by the Houthis in Yemen, were fully made possible by Iran.”