The State Department has declined to address comments from an Israeli minister who called for the annexation of at least some parts of besieged Gaza.
Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Friday the US is "in a dynamic where there are diplomatic conversations happening," adding that Washington is "still working to implement ceasefires and dealing with issues and questions regarding what can happen on the ground when there's still hostilities and still conflict."
During a press briefing, she said talk of annexation "is a distraction to move past the nature of what's going on now."
"It's interesting that we can continue to keep in our minds the nature of what's in front of us, which is still to stop the wholesale slaughter of people, the use of other individuals as human shields, the general chaos that causes, and the fact that there are ways to stop it," she said.
"Others, perhaps they want us to always talk about something else, to get people distracted about that thing so you stop looking at what is the thing that we need to deal with immediately," she added.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday ordered the Israeli forces to occupy more of Gaza after expelling Palestinian residents as Israel resumes its genocide on the blockaded enclave. The Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported Katz ordered the further occupation of Palestinian areas in Gaza under the pretext of protecting Israeli soldiers and communities near Gaza.
"The more Hamas insists on refusing to release the hostages, the more land it will lose, which will be annexed to Israel," KAN quoted Katz as saying.
He added that the Israeli military operation in Gaza "will escalate until all hostages held by Hamas are freed."
TRT Global - In recent months, several Israeli far-right politicians have suggested taking advantage of the friendly US administration under President Donald Trump to annex part or all of the occupied West Bank.
Israeli genocide
Israel has killed over 700 Palestinians and wounded over 900 after it unilaterally ended the Gaza truce and renewed its genocidal war in the blockaded enclave.
Hamas had sought to advance negotiations into a second phase of a negotiated ceasefire that was agreed to in January.
But Israel insisted that the Palestinian resistance group release all hostages immediately in a sharp departure from the agreement's terms.
Israel has killed nearly 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 2023.
Tel Aviv's carnage caused a massive shortage of basic necessities, including food, water, electricity and medicine, while displacing almost the entire population and cutting off humanitarian aid.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
