Top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Monday said Israel had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a Gaza truce deal and pressured Hamas to do the same, having earlier said the talks may be the “last opportunity” for a ceasefire.
Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Gaza war started, said he had “a very constructive meeting” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “confirmed to me that Israel supports the bridging proposal”.
“He supports it. It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
Washington put forward the proposal last week after the most recent round of talks in Qatar.
Ahead of those talks, Hamas called on mediators to implement a framework outlined in late May by US President Joe Biden, rather than hold more negotiations.
The movement on Sunday said the bridging proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and leaves him “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators.”
Blinken said Netanyahu had “committed to sending his senior expert team” to further negotiations, “but we look to Hamas, first and foremost, to get behind the bridging proposal” which, he said, incorporates the May framework.
Earlier on Monday, the US secretary of state had said: “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.”
Months of on-off negotiations with US, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators have failed to produce an agreement.
Blinken is due to travel on Tuesday to Egypt where ceasefire talks are expected to resume this week. He said he will then go on to Qatar.
