Blinken seeks progress on Gaza cease-fire-for-hostages deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Cairo on Tuesday for a meeting with Egyptian leaders that US officials said would concentrate mainly on the task of negotiating a cease-fire in the IsraelHamas war in exchange for the release of hostages held by the militants.
Blinken’s visit also comes amid growing concerns in Egypt about Israel’s stated intentions to expand the combat in Gaza to areas on the Egyptian border that are crammed with displaced Palestinians.
Israel’s defence minister has said Israel’s offensive will eventually reach the town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge and live in increasingly miserable conditions.
UN humanitarian monitors said Tuesday that Israeli evacuation orders now cover
two-thirds of Gaza’s territory, driving thousands more people every day toward the border areas.
Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment along the border would threaten the peace treaty the two countries signed over four decades ago. Egypt fears an expansion of combat to the Rafah area could push terrified Palestinian civilians across the border, a scenario Egypt has said it is determined to prevent.
Blinken, who was meeting Tuesday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has said repeatedly that Palestinians must not be forced out of Gaza. During his latest trip, Blinken is seeking progress on a cease-fire deal, on potential normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and on preventing an escalation of regional fighting.
On all three fronts, Blinken faces major challenges. Hamas and Israel are publicly at odds over key elements of a potential truce. Israel has dismissed the United States’ calls for a path to a Palestinian state, and Iran’s militant allies in the region have shown little sign of being deterred by US strikes.
Egypt along with Qatar, where Blinken will be later Tuesday have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would lead to the release of more hostages in return for a several-week-long pause in Israeli military operations.
The outlines of such a deal were worked out by intelligence chiefs from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel late last month and have been presented to Hamas, which has not yet formally responded.
US officials said Blinken is hoping to get an update on Hamas’ response to the proposal in both Cairo and Doha. Blinken will then travel to Israel to brief Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his War Cabinet on Wednesday about what he heard from the Arab leaders.
Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment along border would threaten the peace treaty two countries signed over four decades ago