Blinken in Israel for truce deal talks
TEL AVIV, Israel: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel on Wednesday, where he was expected to press for what he called an “essential” truce agreement as the Jewish state’s war with Hamas entered its fiFTH MONTH.
The diplomat was due to meet Israel’s leaders as part of a Middle East crisis tour after earlier stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.
Qatar, which mediated a temporary ceasefire earlier in the conflict, said Hamas had given a response to a new proposed deal to pause the fighting.
“The reply includes some comments, but in general it is positive,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said after meeting Blinken in the capital Doha.
Blinken said Hamas’ reply had been “shared” with Israel and he would discuss it there on Wednesday.
He also said there was still “a lot of work to be done,” but that he believed “that an agreement is possible and indeed essential.”
Israel’s spy agency Mossad also received the Hamas response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, and “its details are being thoroughly evaluated.”
Netanyahu, who is yet to comment directly on the response, said on Tuesday: “We are on the way to the total victory, and we will not stop.”
Pressure for a ceasefire has mounted as Israeli forces push toward the city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, where more than half of the besieged territory’s population has taken shelter.
“To be clear, intensified hostilities in Rafah in this situation could lead to large-scale loss of civilian lives, and we must do everything possible within our power to avoid that,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The war started with Hamas’ unprecedented attacks on southern Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on official Israeli figures.
The Palestinian militants also seized about 250 hostages, with Israel saying 132 remain in the Gaza Strip.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel has launched airstrikes and a land offensive that have killed at least 27,585 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry said.
The campaign has devastated swathes of Gaza, destroyed hospitals and displaced more than half of its population of 2.4 million, while food, water, fuel and medicine are in dire shortage.
About 8,000 displaced people had been evacuated from the besieged Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, where they had sought refuge, after weeks of heavy shelling and fighting nearby, the Red Cross said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 100 people were killed overnight into Wednesday.
Diplomatic push
Last week, a Hamas source said the proposed truce calls for a six-week pause to fighting for a hostage-prisoner exchange, as well as more aid for Gaza.
On Monday, Netanyahu said Hamas had presented “demands that we will not accept” for an exchange involving thousands of prisoners.
The Israeli leader is under pressure to end the war and bring the hostages home, amid divisions within his Cabinet and public fury over the fate of the remaining captives.
The US has strongly backed Israel with munitions and diplomatic support, but has also urged steps to reduce civilian casualties.
On his latest diplomatic tour to the region, Blinken first stopped in Saudi Arabia, which Washington has been pushing to normalize ties with Israel.
After comments from Washington indicated “positive feedback” on establishing ties, the kingdom emphasized it would not be willing to do so without recognition for an independent Palestinian state.
“The Kingdom has communicated its firm position to the US administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognized on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.