US President says now ‘time to finalise’ Gaza deal and ‘end this war’

New York: US President Joe Biden has urged Israel and Hamas to finalise a months-old ceasefire proposal, telling the United Nations he was committed to ending the Gaza conflict.

“Now is the time for the parties to finalise its terms,” he said of the deal brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

The deal will “bring the hostages home and secure security for Israel and Gaza free from Hamas’s grip, ease the suffering in Gaza and end this war”, Biden told the UN General Assembly.

U.S. President declared that Russia's war in Ukraine has failed and that a diplomatic solution between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah was still possible.

With four months left in office, Biden stepped up to the green-marbled lectern at the U.N. General Assembly with wars in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Sudan still raging and likely to outlast his presidency, which ends in January.

He sought to calm tensions as the nearly year-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip now threatens to engulf Lebanon - where Israel targeted more than a thousand Hezbollah targets on Monday.

"Full scale war is not in anyone's interest, even if situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible," he told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.