Blinken urges Hamas to accept ‘extraordinarily generous’ Israeli ceasefire deal
The US secretary of state has said that “the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire” is Hamas, ahead of what are seen as lastchance talks to salvage a diplomatic solution before a threatened Israeli ground invasion in Rafah.
Speaking at a World Economic Forum meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Antony Blinken said: “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel.
“They have to decide and they have to decide quickly … I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision and we can have a fundamental change in the dynamic.”
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, told the same gathering that
Hamas should accept the deal for a “sustained 40 days’ ceasefire”.
International actors have renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire in the nearly seven-month-old conflict in recent days. Israel’s mounting preparations for a ground operation in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter from the fighting elsewhere, mean this week’s talks in Cairo may be the last opportunity for negotiations to free Israeli hostages and pause or end the war.
A Hamas delegation left the Egyptian capital on Monday, saying they would return again with a written response to the ceasefire proposal.
Blinken, on his seventh visit to the region since the war broke out, is expected to next visit Israel to discuss the negotiations. Israel has not publicly confirmed whether it is also sending a delegation to Cairo.
The latest ceasefire proposal appears to include major compromises from Israel, which is under domestic pressure over the fate of the hostages and facing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis its war has caused in Gaza.
About 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 taken hostage in Hamas’s 7 October attack. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ensuing retaliatory operation in Gaza, which has left desperate civilians without healthcare, food or water and reduced most of the coastal territory to ruins.
Israel is reportedly willing to accept the release of just 33 hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and a second phase of a truce that includes a “period of sustained calm” – a new response to Hamas’s repeated demand for a permanent ceasefire.
It is also reportedly open to discussing the return of Palestinians to their homes in the northern half of the strip, and the withdrawal of troops from the military corridor that now divides the territory.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said Egypt was optimistic about the new talks. “We are hopeful the proposal has taken into account the positions of both sides, has tried to extract moderation from both sides, and we are waiting to have a final decision,” he said.
A senior Hamas official said on Sunday that the group had no “major issues” with the most recent truce plan, which in essence remains the same as the deal outlined in several failed rounds of talks since a week-long ceasefire collapsed at the end of November.
In recent days Hamas has broadcast several proof-of-life videos of hostages, a move widely interpreted as a good faith gesture towards mediators. However, an official from the group told Reuters on Monday that “questions and enquiries” remain, suggesting that a response on the latest proposal may not be immediately forthcoming.
Even as hopes grew once again that talks between Israel and Hamas could finally succeed, at least 30 people were killed in airstrikes on Rafah.
Strikes that hit three houses in the city next to the Egyptian border on Monday injured many more people, while in Gaza City, the bombing of two buildings killed another four people
and wounded several more, medics said.
An Israeli military spokesperson said fighter jets had “struck terror targets where terrorists were operating within a civilian area in southern Gaza”, declining to give details.
Israel has said that Hamas’s leadership, along with four battalions of fighters, are camped out in Rafah, using Israeli hostages as human shields, and that a ground operation is necessary to achieve Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise of “total victory” over the Palestinian militants and bring the remaining hostages home.
But the long-threatened plan to attack Rafah has drawn intense opposition from Israel’s allies, including the US, which says the overcrowded conditions could lead to thousands of civilian casualties as well as further disrupting aid deliveries entering from Egypt. Joe Biden “reiterated his clear” opposition to an invasion of Rafah in a conversation with Netanyahu on Sunday.
Blinken reiterated on Monday that the US would not support an Israeli offensive on Rafah until it had seen a plan to prevent harm to civilians.
“We’ve said clearly, and for some time now on Rafah that, in the absence of a plan to ensure that civilians will not be harmed, we can’t support a major military operation,” he said.
“We have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected.”
Netanyahu’s ministers have publicly sparred on whether to go forward with a truce, with far-right members of his coalition threatening to quit the government if Israel is seen to “surrender” to Hamas’s demands.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials appeared increasingly concerned that the international criminal court may issue arrest warrants against the country’s leaders, as pressure mounts over the war.
Israeli officials have referred in recent days to an ICC investigation launched three years ago into possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants going back to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. The investigation is also looking at Israel’s construction of settlements in occupied territory the Palestinians want for a future state.
There was no comment from the court on Monday, and it has given no indication warrants in the case are imminent. It was not clear what sparked the Israeli concerns.
Israel’s foreign ministry said late on Sunday that it had informed Israeli missions of “rumours” that warrants could be issued against senior political and military officials. The foreign minister, Israel Katz, said any such warrants would “provide a morale boost” to Hamas and other militant groups.
Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel “will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defence”.
“The threat to seize the soldiers and officials of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is outrageous. We will not bow to it,” he posted on X.