Blinken stresses ‘decisive moment' for ceasefire and hostage deal as he meets with Israeli president

The push to finalize a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza has reached a ‘decisive moment,’ the United States’ top diplomat said Monday after he met with Israel’s president on his latest trip to the region. This is ‘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,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a news conference alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog. A new ceasefire plan drawn up by the US, Qatar, and Egypt was presented on Friday following two days of high-stakes talks. Mediators have been stepping up efforts as the Middle East braces for a possible Iranian attack on Israel, and after the death toll since October in Gaza reached 40,000 people — a bleak figure that underscores 10 months of suffering, malnutrition, and despair in the Palestinian enclave during Israel’s war with Hamas. Blinken’s visit has become an established pattern of traveling for in-person meetings to project high-level public pressure around the need for an agreement. On Monday, he said he was in Israel as ‘part of an intensive diplomatic effort on President (Joe) Biden’s instructions to try to get this agreement to the line and ultimately over the line.’ While acknowledging it is a ‘fraught moment’ for Israel over concerns about the possibility of attacks from Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Blinken said the US has ’taken decisive actions… to deter any attacks and if necessary to defend against any attacks.’ ‘We’re working to make sure that there is no escalation, there are no provocations, that there are no actions that in any way could move us away from getting this deal over the line, or, for that matter, escalating the conflict to other places and to greater intensity,’ he said. Echoing statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzog blamed Hamas for the deal not yet being finalized, saying ‘people have to understand it starts with the refusal of Hamas to move forward.’ Hamas said earlier the latest proposal does not include a permanent ceasefire and introduces new conditions in a proposed prisoner exchange, among other issues. It also blamed Netanyahu for ‘obstructing’ a deal. Hamas reiterated its desire to enact a three-phase proposal introduced by Biden, which would include the release of hostages from Gaza, a ‘full and complete ceasefire,’ and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. The organization called on mediators to ‘compel the occupation to implement’ that plan. Netanyahu has said Israel will not be ‘giving in to Hamas’s demand’ to end the war in Gaza, but he is facing increasing pressure from the families of hostages to reach a deal. On Sunday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the Israeli government is ‘dragging its feet’ and accused the prime minister of not doing ’everything in their power to return the hostages.’ This is the ninth trip Blinken has made to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. He is expected to meet with Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later Monday. As Blinken arrived in Israel on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed seven members of the same family, medical officials said. Six children and their mother were killed in the strike on a home in Deir al-Balah, according to the Al-Aqsa hospital. The children’s father was injured, a hospital spokesperson said. It comes just a day after an Israeli strike killed at least 15 people, all from the same family, in the al-Zawayda area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Nine children were among those killed, according to the Gaza Civil Defense. In a statement Sunday, the Israeli military said forces continue to operate in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Adding to Gazans’ woes, doctors last week detected the first case of polio in the enclave in 25 years.