US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel and Hamas not to derail negotiations that he said may be a “last opportunity” to secure a Gaza truce and hostage release deal. File picture: SAUL LOEB / AFP
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US "bridging proposal" for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same.
Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack triggered the war with Israel, was scheduled to fly from Tel Aviv to El Alamein, the Mediterranean city famous for a World War II battle in 1942, to speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at his summer palace.
Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week.
Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict.
Washington put forward the latest proposal last week after the talks in Doha.
Blinken said Monday he had "a very constructive meeting" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who "confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal".
Ahead of those talks, Hamas called on the mediators to implement the framework set out by US President Joe Biden in late May, rather than hold more negotiations.
The movement said on Sunday that the current US proposal "responds to Netanyahu's conditions" and leaves him "fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators".
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.
Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for delays in reaching an accord that diplomats say would help avert a wider conflagration in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"There is, I think, a real sense of urgency here, across the region, on the need to get this over the finish line and to do it as soon as possible," Blinken said.
The Biden administration is under domestic pressure over Gaza, with pro-Palestinian protests taking place outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
Biden said in his farewell speech to the convention that the protesters "have a point", adding that "a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides".
Israel and Hamas have traded blame for delays in reaching a truce deal.
Hamas insisted on "a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip", saying Netanyahu wanted to keep Israeli forces at several strategic locations within the territory.
Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters who protested in Tel Aviv during Blinken's visit, and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Netanyahu in order for an agreement to be reached.
Far-right members crucial to the prime minister's governing coalition oppose any truce.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 40,139 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas's attack, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
The Biden framework would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks while Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid enters Gaza.
Netanyahu said on Monday that negotiators were aiming to "release a maximum number of living hostages" in the first phase of any ceasefire.
AFP