Top diplomat Antony Blinken warned that the current cease-fire proposal may be Hamas’ last chance to end the 10-month-long war with Israel.
The US Secretary of State, who is on his latest trip to the Middle East since the conflict began, told reporters on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a new “bridging proposal” for a cease-fire deal.
The onus is now on Hamas to agree, Blinken said.
Blinken even went so far as to suggest that the Palestinian militant group might not get another opportunity to make a deal with Israel.
“This is a decisive moment — probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a cease-fire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken said Monday, according to The Washington Post.
But, when asked later in the day if the US would stop trying to negotiate a deal if Hamas does not agree to this one, Blinken clarified that the US is “never giving up.”
“But,” he added, “What we know is this: With every passing day that there’s not an agreement, two things can happen. One is, of course, more hostages can perish; and second, intervening events come along that may make things even more difficult if not impossible.”
“The fierce urgency of now. That’s what, I think, we’re all feeling. And we do see this as the best opportunity to finally get this over the finish line,” Blinken continued.
The war began on October 7, 2023 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel in a shocking cross-border assault, killing at least 1,400 people and taking at least 200 hostages.
Israel responded with devastating attacks on Hamas — and killing at least 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The attacks have brought ruin to the Gaza Strip and displaced nearly all of the territory’s 2 million residents.
Aid workers have said the ongoing war has created a humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip as disease and starvation have spread.
President Joe Biden told reporters last week that he is “optimistic” a deal can be reached between Israel and Hamas, which he hopes can happen by the end of this week, Axios reported, citing US officials.
Though the details of the latest deal haven’t been made public, a US official told Axios that the current deal on the table seeks to bridge the remaining points of contention between both sides.
Several previous deals over the past few months have not been mutually agreed upon, with Israel agreeing to one in June but not Hamas, and Hamas agreeing to one in May but not Israel.
A bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, which Hamas has claimed credit for, has cast a shadow on the negotiations, with some fearing it points to an impending larger escalation, the Post reported.
And Hamas has already criticized the cease-fire proposal, accusing the US of incorporating all of Israel’s demands and none from the militant group.
“What happened in the last meeting is that the U.S. administration presented a proposal that includes everything Netanyahu wants,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told The Post.
One critical point of contention between both sides is the removal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor. When asked about this point on Monday, Blinken acknowledged that there are still “questions of implementation” to be worked out, but that, “That’s the next step, assuming Hamas agrees to the bridging proposal.”
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