Blinken wraps up Mideast trip with Gaza deal still elusive

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to inject a sense of urgency into brokering a ceasefire in Gaza during a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, but he left the region on Tuesday with a deal between Israel and Hamas remaining elusive.

Negotiations were suspended last week without a breakthrough, with Blinken and mediators from Egypt and Qatar pinning their hopes on a U.S. “bridge proposal” aimed at narrowing the differences between the two sides in the 10-month war.

Blinken told reporters in Doha before traveling to Washington that the deal “needs to be done and it needs to be done in the next few days and we will do everything we can to get it across the finish line.”

A senior Biden administration official traveling with Blinken said the United States expects ceasefire talks to continue this week.

Blinken traveled to Egypt on Tuesday for talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi before traveling to Qatar.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Blinken said Israel had accepted the offer and urged Hamas to do the same. The Palestinian group has not explicitly rejected it but said it was overturning previously agreed terms.

Blinken was asked in Qatar about the terms of an Israeli troop withdrawal within the framework of a ceasefire, as well as an Axios report that quoted Netanyahu as saying he may have convinced Blinken that Israel should remain between Egypt and Gaza. The Philadelphia Corridor retains troops.

“The United States does not accept any long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza,” Blinken said. “More specifically, the agreement was very clear on the timeline and location for (Israel Defense Forces) withdrawal from Gaza, and Israel agreed to it. So that's what I That’s what I know very well.”

Blinken did not comment directly on the Axios report. Post on social media site X. Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Hamas and Egypt both oppose Israel's troop presence in the Philadelphia corridor, but Netanyahu insists they are needed to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza. Earlier on Tuesday, a senior U.S. official disputed the Axios report.

The United States has proposed stationing international troops in the Philadelphia corridor, Egyptian security sources said, adding Cairo could accept the proposal but for up to six months.

“The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader recognition by the international community of the Palestinian state and the implementation of a two-state solution, as this is a fundamental guarantee of stability in the region,” Sisi said after meeting with Blinken.

At stake are the talks over the fate of the tiny and crowded Gaza Strip, where Israeli military operations have killed more than 40,000 people since October, according to Palestinian health authorities, as well as the fate of the remaining hostages held there.

this Gaza War According to Israeli statistics, the conflict began on October 7, when Hamas gunmen stormed Israeli communities and military bases, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.

Blinken called the latest push for a deal “possibly the best or possibly the last chance” and said his meeting with Netanyahu had been constructive. He said Hamas had a responsibility to accept the transition proposal.

Asked about Blinken's comments, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: “Blinken's insistence on not retreating from the realm of lies is one of the reasons why efforts to reach a deal have failed.”

Qatar's foreign minister tells Blinken that Qatar is committed to playing a mediating role in ceasefire talks with Egypt and the United States

Qatar's foreign ministry said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani stressed to Blinken in a phone call the importance of consolidating regional and international efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage and prisoner exchange agreement.

Vedant Patel, deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said in a statement that both men emphasized that the negotiators' bridging proposals resolved remaining differences to allow for the expeditious implementation of the agreement.

Officials from the United States, Hamas, Israel, Egypt and Qatar have not said what the proposal is or how it differs from previous versions.

Hamas accused Israel of blocking a deal with new demands and said the group remained committed to the terms agreed with mediators in July under a U.S. proposal made in May. Netanyahu denies standing in the way of a deal.

Months of on-again, off-again talks have revolved around the same issue, with Israel saying the war can only end if Hamas is destroyed as a military and political force and Hamas saying it will only accept a permanent ceasefire, not a temporary one.

The U.S. official said that even if Hamas immediately agreed to the transition proposal, more dialogue would have to take place to hammer out the details of implementing the deal.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from southern Gaza. According to Israeli authorities, 109 hostages currently remain in Palestinian territories, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

As Israeli troops battled Hamas-led militants in central and southern Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said Israeli attacks killed at least 39 people, including a school housing displaced people.

The Israeli military said it attacked Hamas militants lurking in the school.