TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that now is the time to strike a cease-fire in Gaza that would return hostages held by Hamas and ease the suffering of Palestinians after their homes were demolished. 10 months of devastating fighting In Gaza.
Blinken’s ninth urgent mission to the Middle East since the conflict began came days after mediators, including the United States, visited expressed renewed optimism An agreement was imminent. But Hamas expressed deep dissatisfaction with the latest proposal, and Israel said there were areas it was unwilling to give up.
The trip, which comes days ahead of new talks expected this week in Egypt, comes amid fears the conflict could widen into a deeper regional war in the wake of Killing of senior armed leaders In Lebanon, Iran blamed Israel.
“This is a critical moment, and perhaps the best chance, perhaps the last chance, to bring the hostages home, to achieve a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to lasting peace and security,” Blinken said at the start of his talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
“It is also time to make sure that nobody takes any steps that would derail this process,” he said, in an implicit reference to Iran. “So we are working to make sure that there is no escalation, there is no provocation, there are no actions that would in any way distance us from completing this deal, or escalate the conflict to other places and with greater intensity.”
Herzog thanked Blinken for the Biden administration’s support for Israel and expressed regret over the recent series of attacks against Israelis in the past 24 hours.
“This is how we live these days. We are surrounded by terror from all over the world, and we are resisting as a strong and resilient nation,” Herzog said.
Mediators are scheduled to meet again this week in Cairo to try to cement a ceasefire, and Blinken is due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday after concluding his visit to Israel.
Pompeo met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for two and a half hours on Monday, and is scheduled to meet with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later in the day.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250 others. It is believed that about 110 of them are still in Gaza.Although Israeli authorities say about a third of them were killed, more than 100 hostages were released in November during a week-long ceasefire.
Israel’s counterattack on Gaza Killed more than 40 thousand Palestinians, According to local health authorities, the fire has destroyed large parts of the area.
Late last week, the three countries mediating the proposed ceasefire — Egypt, Qatar and the United States — announced progress on a deal that would see Israel halt most military operations in Gaza and release a number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages.
Shortly before Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that there were areas where Israel could be flexible and unspecified areas where it would not be. “We are in negotiations, not a give-and-take scenario,” he said.
The proposals call for a three-stage process, in which Hamas releases all the hostages it seized during its October 7 attack. In return, Israel withdraws its forces from Gaza and releases Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas accuses Israel of adding new demands, including maintaining a military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent arms smuggling and along a line dividing the territory so it can search Palestinians returning to their homes in the north. Israel said these were not new demands, but clarifications of an earlier proposal.
Officials said the United States has put forward proposals to bridge any remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas’s positions. Official responses to the U.S. plan are expected this week, and could lead to a ceasefire unless the talks collapse, as has happened with many previous efforts.
Late Sunday, Hamas said in a statement that Netanyahu had continued to obstruct an agreement by demanding new conditions, accusing him of wanting to prolong the war. It said the latest offer by mediators amounted to a surrender to Israel.
Hamas said that “the new proposal comes in response to Netanyahu’s conditions.”
Blinken said on Monday that both sides should seize this opportunity to reach an agreement.
“It’s time for everyone to say yes and not look for any excuses to say no,” he said.
An Egyptian official said on Monday that an Israeli delegation held talks with Egyptian officials as part of calming efforts.
The hours-long meeting Sunday focused on the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, but did not achieve any breakthrough, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations.
The official said Israel still insists on maintaining control over the border and the east-west road that divides Gaza, adding that the delegation did not present anything new at its meeting.
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Associated Press reporter Sami Magdy contributed to this report from Cairo.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war on https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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