TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his ninth diplomatic trip to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began, will push for a swift conclusion to an elusive ceasefire agreement.
Blinken arrived in Israel on Sunday ahead of a planned final push for a deal in Cairo later this week. He will meet with top Israeli officials on Monday before heading to Egypt on Tuesday.
Last week, the three countries mediating the proposed ceasefire reported progress towards a deal that would involve Israel halting most military operations in Gaza and releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
A senior official traveling with Blinken described his arrival in the region as coming at a “critical time” in the ceasefire talks. The official, speaking anonymously, said Blinken would urge all parties to quickly finalize the agreement to end civilian suffering in Gaza and prevent the conflict from spreading throughout the region.
Shortly before Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that Israel is willing to be flexible in certain areas, but not in others, which he didn’t specify. “We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” he said.
In addition to Netanyahu, Blinken will meet with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog on Monday.
On Friday, the U.S. and fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar said they were close to a deal after two days of talks in Doha, with American and Israeli officials expressing cautious optimism. However, Hamas has indicated resistance to what it called new demands from Israel.
The evolving proposal calls for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all hostages abducted during its Oct. 7 attack, which sparked the deadliest war between Israelis and Palestinians. In exchange, Israel would withdraw its forces from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners.
Officials said the U.S. has presented proposals to bridge all the remaining gaps between the Israeli and Hamas positions. Formal responses to the U.S. proposals are expected this week, potentially leading to a ceasefire declaration unless the talks collapse, as has occurred with multiple previous attempts to end the 10-month-old war.
U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed optimism about a potential deal, saying Friday “we are closer than we’ve ever been.”
The renewed push for a ceasefire comes as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 40,000 since the war began, according to the Palestinian health ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. Israel entered Gaza after the surprise Hamas attacks inside Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Since then, fears of a rapid and dangerous escalation to other parts of the region have fluctuated. These fears are again heightened as Iran and its proxies threaten retaliation for the killings in Lebanon of senior Hezbollah commanders and in Iran of the head of Hamas’ political wing.
