US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned yesterday that the latest push for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal was probably the best and possibly last opportunity, urging Israel and Hamas towards an elusive agreement.
Palestinian group Hamas has cast doubt on the chances of reaching a deal since talks in Qatar last week paused without a breakthrough, but the negotiations are to resume this week based on a US “bridging proposal”.
Blinken met Israeli President Isaac Herzog yesterday before heading into a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while in Gaza Israeli forces thrust further into Khan Younis, residents said, in the latest phase of their assault. At least 40 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza health ministry figures.
“This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken told reporters before meeting Herzog.
Months of on-off talks have circled the same issues, with Israel saying the offensive can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force, and Hamas saying it will only accept a permanent, and not a temporary, ceasefire.
There are disagreements over Israel’s continued military presence inside Gaza, particularly along the border with Egypt, over the free movement of Palestinians inside the territory, and over the identity and number of prisoners to be freed in a swap, reports Reuters.
Hamas accused Netanyahu on Sunday of “thwarting the mediators’ efforts”, and Turkey said after meeting Hamas envoys that Gaza’s ruling group had told it that US officials were “painting an overly optimistic picture” of the talks.
Netanyahu told Israel’s cabinet on Sunday that “we are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” his office said.
Israel’s military campaign has levelled swathes of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease, and killing at least 40,139 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The main UN agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said yesterday that 207 of its staff had been killed since the offensive began. “They were engineers, teachers, medical staff. They were humanitarian workers,” UNRWA said in a statement.
The conflict has put the entire Middle East region on edge, triggering months of border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, and threatening a wider escalation drawing in major powers.
Blinken warned against any provocations. Shortly after he arrived in Israel on Sunday, a bomb exploded near a synagogue in Tel Aviv, killing the person carrying it and injuring a passer-by, Israeli police said.
