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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday called the latest diplomatic push by Washington to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza “probably the best, maybe the last opportunity” and urged all parties to get the agreement over the finish line.
U.S. Secretary of State in Israel to push for ceasefire as talks set to resume this weekThomson Reuters
· Posted: Aug 19, 2024 6:21 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
Palestinian children carry their belongings as they flee a makeshift camp for displaced people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip after Israeli tanks took position on a hill overlooking the area on Sunday. (Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images)U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday called the latest diplomatic push by Washington to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza “probably the best, maybe the last opportunity,” and urged all parties to get the agreement over the finish line.
The marathon talks toward a ceasefire that have been going on for months are set to continue this week in Cairo, following a two-day meeting in Doha last week.
Blinken met separately with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
WATCH | What’s at stake on Blinken’s 9th trip to region since October:
U.S. renews push for Middle East ceasefire After a weekend of deadly airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for another attempt to broker a ceasefire with Hamas.
“This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken told reporters ahead of his meeting with Herzog.
“I’m here as part of an intensive diplomatic effort on President Biden’s instructions to try to get this agreement to the line and ultimately over the line…. It is time for everyone to get to yes and to not look for any excuses to say no,” Blinken went on.
Netanyahu’s three-hour meeting with Blinken was “positive and conducted in a good spirit,” according to a statement from his office.
“The prime minister reiterated Israel’s commitment to the latest American proposal regarding the release of our hostages — taking into account Israel’s security needs, which he insists on firmly,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Hamas official dismissiveMonths of on-off talks have circled the same issues, with Israel saying the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force, and Hamas saying it will only accept a permanent, and not a temporary, ceasefire.
There are disagreements over Israel’s continued military presence inside Gaza, particularly along the border with Egypt, over the free movement of Palestinians inside the territory, and over the identity and number of prisoners to be freed in a swap.
The mediating countries — Qatar, the United States and Egypt — have so far failed to narrow enough differences to reach an agreement in months of on-off negotiations, and violence continued unabated in Gaza on Sunday.
A woman walks past a banner depicting the faces of Israel’s fallen soldiers, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv on Monday. (Florian Goga/Reuters)Hamas said it holds Netanyahu responsible for “thwarting the mediators’ efforts,” delaying an agreement and exposing Israeli hostages in Gaza to the same aggression faced by Palestinians.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri was dismissive of the chances that Blinken would press Netanyahu to accept a deal. “Blinken acts as if he was a minister in Netanyahu’s government,” Zuhri told Reuters.
There has been increased urgency to reach a ceasefire deal amid fears of escalation across the wider region. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
The top U.S. diplomat also repeated U.S. caution against further escalation.
“It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process, and so we’re working to make sure that there is no escalation, that there are no provocations,” Blinken said.
Bomber killed in Tel AvivShortly after Blinken arrived in Israel on Sunday, a bomb exploded near a synagogue in Tel Aviv, killing the person carrying it and injuring a passerby, Israeli police said. Hamas and close ally Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the blast.
The Israeli military said a soldier was killed on Monday and another severely wounded in northern Israel, a region that has come under near-daily rocket and drone attack from Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon.
The military said it had successfully intercepted multiple drone strikes on Israel’s north near the border with Lebanon, but that some of the drones had landed in the northern region of Ya’ara.
Israeli security and emergency personnel deploy at the site of an explosion in Tel Aviv late Sunday. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)In the latest Gaza fighting, Israeli military advances north of Khan Younis on Monday reached the coastal road, effectively cutting access between the city and areas to the north, residents said. They said fierce clashes could be heard.
Israel also stepped up its bombardment of Gaza City suburbs overnight, but there were no initial reports of casualties.
The war erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants rampaged into Israel, killing around 1,200 people, including several Canadian citizens, and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military campaign has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. The health ministry in Gaza does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its death tolls.
The main UN agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said on Monday that 207 of its staff had been killed since the war began.
