Blinken says Israel has accepted US-backed proposal for a cease-fire, calls on Hamas to do identical

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Israel has accepted a proposal for a cease-fire and hostage alternate in Gaza, calling on Hamas to do the identical. 

America’s prime diplomat, at present on his ninth journey to the Center East since Oct. 7, warned this may be the final probability to safe the 111 hostages in Gaza by diplomacy and set up peace within the area. 

“It is a decisive second, in all probability the perfect, possibly the final, alternative to get the hostages residence, to get a cease-fire and to place everybody on a greater path to enduring peace and safety,” Blinken mentioned as he met with Israeli management. 

“It’s additionally time to ensure that nobody takes any steps that might derail this course of,” he mentioned in reference to the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday and looming assaults from Hezbollah and Iran. 

“And so we’re working to ensure that there isn’t any escalation, that there are not any provocations, that there are not any actions that in any manner transfer us away from getting this deal over the road, or for that matter, escalating the battle to different locations and to better depth,” Blinken added.

His announcement got here after negotiators gathered final week to debate the US-back, UN-approved deal, with Hamas selecting to forgo the assembly after it accused the Jewish state of fixing what was on the desk. 

The US-backed proposal seeks to impose a six-week pause in preventing in order to permit Israel and Hamas to debate a hostage alternate, all whereas permitting Palestinian refugees to return to their properties and obtain extra support.

Hamas has allegedly dropped its calls for for the speedy cease-fire to be everlasting, however the terror group has beforehand acknowledged that the deal ought to embody wording to determine an finish to the warfare.

It stays unclear if such a change was added to the settlement or if the fear group would lastly settle for the deal. 

Hamas additionally accused Israel of now demanding its army maintain a presence alongside the Gaza-Egypt border, the place giant terror tunnel programs have been just lately discovered, to forestall arms smuggling. 

Israel claimed these weren’t new calls for, however clarifications from a earlier proposal. 

The fear group has finally positioned the blame of the stalled peace talks on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed that the warfare is not going to finish till Hamas is destroyed.  

Netanyahu insisted Sunday that he’ll stick with his weapons and ensure the negotiations go ahead as a give-and-take and “not a give-and-give.”

“There are areas the place we will present flexibility, and there are areas the place we will’t present flexibility — and we’re standing agency on them,” Netanyahu mentioned in a press release.

With Publish wires