Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a dual message to Hamas and Israel on Wednesday, urging Hamas to accept a ceasefire offer while urging Israeli leaders to delay a major ground invasion of the densely populated southern Gaza city of Rafah.
On the final day of his Middle East trip, Blinken made his seventh trip to the region since the start of the October war as he sought to increase pressure on Hamas.
“We are determined to achieve a ceasefire and get the hostages home, and do it now, and the only reason we can’t do that is Hamas,” Blinken said at the start of the meeting in Tel. Zach Herzog. “There is a proposal on the table and as we say: no delays, no excuses. It’s now.
The proposed deal calls for the release of 33 hostages in the early stages of a ceasefire and would lead to the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Blinken’s remarks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were part of a coordinated effort by the Biden administration to secure a moratorium on the war that Gaza officials say has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. The bloodshed has roiled American campuses and is seeping into domestic politics.
Blinken has also made clear that he expects more from Israel.
Mr. Blinken told reporters on Wednesday night after a day of meetings with Israeli leaders, including a nearly three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the Israelis had not given him the benefit of the doubt. They could prevent what was feared to be a humanitarian disaster.
“We cannot and will not support a major military operation in Rafah without an effective plan to ensure civilians are not harmed – and no, we have not seen such a plan,” Blinken told reporters. “There are other ways, and we believe better ways, to deal with Hamas’s real, ongoing challenges that do not involve or require major military action.”
Blinken’s trip to the Middle East begins on Monday as Israel softens some of its demands in cease-fire talks and sticks to its vow to enter Rafah “with or without a deal.” I said something like this some time ago.
In its latest proposal, Israel said it would ease the return of Palestinian civilians displaced by attacks to northern Gaza, two Israeli officials said. It was a sharp reversal of an issue that had been a sticking point in the negotiations.
Israel has been demanding for weeks that it be able to impose significant restrictions on Palestinians traveling to the north, fearing that Hamas, which launched a deadly attack on Israel on October 7 to trigger a war, could use a massive military operation. .
Now, Israel has agreed to the collective return of Palestinian civilians in the first phase of the deal, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One Israeli official said there would be no checks or restrictions on people returning to the north, while another said there would be few if any restrictions, without elaborating.
It is unclear whether Hamas will accept Israel’s offer.
“Our position on the current negotiating document is negative,” Osama Hamdan, the group’s spokesman, told Lebanese television on Wednesday night. But the Hamas press office later clarified those comments. “The negative stance does not mean that negotiations have stopped,” the press office said. “There’s a back-and-forth issue.”
Hamas has long demanded that any deal include a permanent end to the war that has forced most of Gaza’s more than 2 million people to flee their homes. An Israeli official said the Israeli proposal did not include language explicitly discussing an end to the fighting.
Blinken discussed the hostages and ceasefire agreement during a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to a State Department summary. He also spoke of the U.S. government’s “clear position” on Rafah, the summary said. About a million civilians have taken refuge there, and U.S. officials say Israel should take targeted action against Hamas leaders and fighters in the city.
Blinken also spoke with Knesset opposition leader Yair Lapid. Later, Lapid said in a social media post that Netanyahu had “no political excuse” not to reach an agreement to declare a ceasefire and release the hostages. “Every hour counts,” he said.
Increasing humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza has been a recurring theme during Blinken’s stops in Israel and, a day earlier, in Jordan.
On Tuesday night, he visited a warehouse in Jordan where trucks were loading food and medical aid for the newly opened Erez crossing into northern Gaza. “This is real and important progress,” Mr. Blinken said, “but more needs to be done.”
The next day, about 30 trucks carrying goods from Jordan passed through the crossing. It had been promised weeks ago to open the crossing, but the Israeli military said it needed to build inspection facilities and pave roads on both sides of the border before aid trucks could use the crossing.
Blinken also visited a checkpoint at Kerem Shalom, the southern border crossing between Israel and Gaza, on Wednesday. Flatbed trucks loaded with food aid bags – onions, rice and cooking oil – await inspection in Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Yov Galante walks with Blinken.
Before touring the checkpoint, Blinken visited an Israeli kibbutz, one of the sites of an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and its allies. The burned house contained a family of five, all American citizens.
Israel continued its air strikes on the border on Wednesday. Gaza’s health ministry said on Wednesday that the bodies of 33 people killed in the attack had been taken to local hospitals in the past 24 hours.
