Blinken in Middle East to sell Gaza ceasefire deal

BBC:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Egypt as he attempts to build regional support for a draft Gaza peace deal recently unveiled by President Joe Biden.

The top American diplomat is on his eighth visit to the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza.

Mr Blinken will first meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, before talks later on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mediators in the region – which also include Qatar – have been attempting to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas for months.

Mr Netanyahu has vowed to resist any such deal until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed and all hostages are released.

On Saturday, Israel’s forces, backed by air strikes, freed four more captives after fighting intense gun battles with Hamas in and around the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said the raid killed 274 people, including children and other civilians. Israel says fewer than 100 people died in the operation.

After the offensive, Hamas’s political leader said the group would not agree to a ceasefire deal unless it achieved security for Palestinians.

Mr Blinken will use his trip to urge Arab leaders to pressurise Hamas into accepting the ceasefire-for-hostage release deal that the US desperately seeks.

The three-phase plan set out 10 days ago by Mr Biden would involve a six-week ceasefire that would become permanent, and the rebuilding of Gaza with international assistance.

The president called it Israel’s proposal, in an attempt to effectively bounce the two sides into progress.

Mr Biden’s officials claim the text is “nearly identical” to one endorsed by Hamas last month. “The only thing standing in the way of achieving this ceasefire is Hamas. It is time for them to accept the deal,” Mr Blinken said on Saturday.

Hamas is likely to demand guarantees the plan would lead to a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Its political leadership in Doha has yet to formally respond to the proposal, according to US and Israeli officials, so it remains to be seen whether indirect negotiations can resume.

During its 7 October attacks in southern Israel, Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took some 251 people hostage.

Some 116 remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.

A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Hamas-run health ministry says the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 37,000.