Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel for a trip focused on bridging the significant gaps between Israel and Hamas on a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire proposal aimed at ending 10 months of fighting in the devastated Gaza Strip.
A senior State Department official said Blinken will hold meetings Monday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Blinken will travel to Egypt on Tuesday.
U.S. negotiators, led by CIA Director William J. Burns, presented a “bridging” proposal to both parties on Friday, announcing the goal of concluding the negotiations as soon as this week. But serious doubts remain.
Hamas officials dismissed President Joe Biden’s claim that the talks were close to a conclusion, telling reporters Saturday that that was an “illusion,” and on Sunday they again accused Israel of shifting the terms of previously agreed-upon negotiations - an accusation that Netanyahu leveled at Hamas as well.
The deal supported by the United States and mediating partners Qatar and Egypt includes a six-week cease-fire, the release of scores of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from major population centers in Gaza.
Key sticking points have been Israel’s insistence on maintaining a military presence along the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza and the establishment of checkpoints to inspect Palestinians seeking to return to their homes in northern Gaza, according to diplomats who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. There are also unresolved issues related to the roster of Palestinian detainees Israel will agree to release.
On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office insisted that Israel would continue to remain in the Philadelphi Corridor as a security precaution and said the prime minister was continuing to work on advancing a deal.
In a statement Sunday, Hamas accused Netanyahu of procrastinating and placing obstacles in the way of an agreement, which the group said was “a strategy” to “prolong the war.”
A senior Hamas official said the “bridging” proposal calls for a reduction of the Israeli military presence along the Philadelphi Corridor, rather than a full Israeli withdrawal, and includes a plan for the Rafah crossing linking Gaza with Egypt to be administered by the Palestinian Authority under Israeli supervision. The Hamas official cautioned that many details were still under discussion and would not comment on whether the group would accept such terms. He, like others, summarized the proposal on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share the information with the media.
During a refueling stop en route to Tel Aviv, a senior State Department official acknowledged the remaining gaps but said there is a strong belief within the Biden administration that the discrepancies are “bridgeable.”
An Israeli official declined to comment on the substance of the talks. Netanyahu, speaking to his cabinet on Sunday, said, “There are things we can be flexible about, and there are things we can’t be flexible about - and we insist on them,” he said. “We know very well how to differentiate between the two.”
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Blinken will push hard for the conclusion of the deal, which “would achieve a cease-fire in Gaza, secure the release of all hostages, ensure humanitarian assistance is distributed throughout Gaza, and create the conditions for broader regional stability.”
Even if a deal is reached, there are widespread doubts that it would lead to the end of the war in Gaza because of ambiguities in its language. After Hamas releases most of the hostages in its possession in the first six weeks of the cease-fire, Israel and Hamas would enter into negotiations for a permanent cease-fire. But if Israel determines those talks have collapsed, it could resume its military operations in Gaza, said diplomats familiar with the deal.
This, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told The Washington Post, makes a cease-fire even less certain. “There are no guarantees or commitments to stop the war after implementing the first phase of the agreement. Why would we make any agreement that will not lead to stopping the war?”
Hanging over the negotiations is the threat that Iran and Hezbollah will attack Israel for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon, which they have blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role in Haniyeh’s killing - though it privately told U.S. officials that it was responsible.
Blinken will “underscore the critical need for all parties in the region to avoid escalation or any other actions that could undermine the ability to finalize an agreement,” Patel said.
Blinken arrives in Israel just as his British and French counterparts leave the country after warning about the risks of a full-scale regional war. “One miscalculation, and the situation risks spiralling into an even deeper and more intractable conflict,” British Foreign Minister David Lammy and his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, wrote in an op-ed in the Observer.
The visit was a rarity for the two European powers, which had not conducted a joint trip since 2011 amid a downturn in relations following Britain’s exit from the European Union. While pressing a message in harmony with Washington’s efforts for the swift adoption of a cease-fire deal, the top diplomats also expressed concern about growing Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, which Lammy called “abhorrent” in a news conference Friday.
Here’s what else to know
• Iran reserves the right to respond to the killing of Haniyeh on its soil, Tehran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, said in a phone call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Saturday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, and the region has been on edge over an anticipated assault on Israel.
• Israel is working with the World Health Organization and UNICEF to get over a million more vaccines into Gaza amid the threat of a polio outbreak, according to the Israeli military agency known as COGAT (the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories). A number of children inside the enclave have symptoms “consistent with polio” and one case has been confirmed, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday. Before the Oct. 7 attack, 99 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million people were vaccinated for polio, a rate that has since dropped to 86 percent, according to the WHO.
• Gaza’s civil defense authorities said they have been unable to respond to about 15,000 distress calls since the war began because of movement restrictions, fuel shortages and the targeting of rescue teams and equipment. Speaking at a news conference Sunday, the group said repeated evacuation orders in Gaza have pushed civilians into a humanitarian zone that accounts for just 10 percent of the Strip’s small territory.
• A British Foreign Office official resigned in protest of the United Kingdom’s arms sales to Israel, the BBC reported. The official, identified as Mark Smith, wrote in an email to his colleagues that the British government “may be complicit in war crimes” and said he raised concerns “at every level” of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), according to the BBC. The FCDO said in a statement that it does not comment on individual cases. It said the government “is committed to upholding international law” and pointed to an ongoing “review process to assess whether Israel is complying with International Humanitarian Law.”
• At least 40,099 people have been killed and 92,609 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and says 331 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.