Accept truce deal, says Blinken

AFP| Jerusalem

Top US diplomat Antony
Blinken yesterday urged
Hamas to accept a truce
in Gaza, as Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu vowed
to launch a military offensive on
Rafah “with or without” a deal.

The hawkish premier issued
the warning despite strong concerns
raised by top ally Washington
and hours before Secretary
of State Blinken arrived in
Israel on his latest Middle East
crisis tour.

Netanyahu, who has vowed to
destroy Hamas over its October
7 attack, said stopping the war
“before achieving all of its goals
is out of the question”.

“We will enter Rafah and we
will eliminate the Hamas battalions
there with or without a
deal,” he told families of some
of the hostages still being held
in Gaza, his office said.

Netanyahu’s comments came
as Hamas was weighing the latest
plan for a truce proposed in
Cairo talks with US, Egyptian
and Qatari mediators.

The Palestinian group said
it was considering a plan for
a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange
of scores of hostages for
larger numbers of Palestinian
prisoners.

Hamas, whose envoys returned
from Cairo talks to their
base in Qatar, would “discuss the
ideas and the proposal”, said a
Hamas source, adding that “we
are keen to respond as quickly
as possible”.

Al-Qahera News, a site linked
to Egyptian intelligence services,
earlier reported that Hamas
negotiators were due to “return
with a written response”.

An Israeli official told AFP the
government “will wait for answers
until Wednesday night”,
and then “make a decision”
whether to send envoys to Cairo.

Washington has heightened
pressure on all sides to reach
a ceasefire - a message pushed
by Blinken, who was on his seventh
regional tour since the war
broke out.

“Now it’s on Hamas,” Blinken
told reporters in Jordan. “No
more delays, no more excuses...
We want to see in the coming
days this agreement coming together.”
Blinken, who arrived in Israel
ahead of talks with Netanyahu
and other officials
yesterday following visits to
Jordan and Saudi Arabia, also
called for the redoubling of aid
efforts.

A truce is “the most effective
way to relieve the suffering” of
civilians in the besieged Gaza
Strip, he told reporters near
Amman