Top diplomat Antony Blinken warned that the current ceasefire proposal could be Hamas’ last chance to end the ten-month war with Israel.
The US secretary of state, on his latest trip to the Middle East since the conflict began, told reporters on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a new “bridge proposal” for a ceasefire agreement.
Now it is up to Hamas to agree, Blinken said.
Blinken even went so far as to claim that the Palestinian militant group may not get another opportunity to reach an agreement with Israel.
“This is a pivotal moment — probably the best, perhaps the last, opportunity to bring the hostages home, achieve a ceasefire, and put everyone on a better path to lasting peace and security,” Blinken said Monday, according to the Washington Post.
But when asked later in the day whether the US would stop trying to negotiate if Hamas did not agree to the deal, Blinken made it clear that the US would “never give up.”
“But,” he added, “what we do know is this: With every day that passes without an agreement, two things can happen. First, of course, more hostages can die. And second, events can intervene that make things even more difficult, if not impossible.”
“The burning urgency of now. That’s what I think we all feel. And we 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 attack that killed at least 1,400 people and took at least 200 hostages.
Israel responded with devastating attacks on Hamas – killing at least 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The attacks have left the Gaza Strip in ruins and forced almost the entire two million population of the area to flee.
Aid workers said the ongoing war had sparked a humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip as disease and famine spread.
President Joe Biden told reporters last week he was “optimistic” that an agreement could be reached between Israel and Hamas, saying he hoped it could happen by the end of this week, Axios reported, citing U.S. officials.
Although details of the latest agreement have not been made public, a U.S. official told Axios that the agreement currently on the table aims to bridge the remaining points of contention between the two sides.
Several previous agreements in recent months have failed to reach mutual agreement. For example, Israel agreed to an agreement in June but Hamas did not, and Hamas agreed to an agreement in May but Israel did not.
A bomb attack in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, for which Hamas claimed responsibility, is casting a shadow over the talks, with some fearing it signals a major escalation to come, the Washington Post reported.
And Hamas has already criticized the ceasefire proposal, accusing the US of taking into account all of Israel’s demands but not those of the militant group.
“At the last meeting, the US government presented a proposal that contains everything Netanyahu wants,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the Washington Post.
A critical point of contention between the two sides is the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphia Corridor. When Blinken was asked about this point on Monday, he acknowledged that there were still “implementation issues” to be resolved, but: “That is the next step, assuming Hamas agrees to the bridge proposal.”
