Agencies
Tel Aviv
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv on Sunday for a visit aimed at ramping up political pressure to move towards a Gaza ceasefire and captive-prisoner exchange deal after more than 10 months of deadly strikes on the enclave.
In his 10th trip to the region, since the war began last October, the top US diplomat will meet on Monday with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
After Israel, Blinken will continue on to Egypt, where mediated negotiations are ongoing in the capital, Cairo.
Blinken is visiting Israel as part of Washington’s efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza in which more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged enclave since last October.
Blinken arrived in Israel days after the US put forward proposals that it and mediators Qatar and Egypt believe would close gaps between Israel and Hamas. Truce talks are expected to resume in Cairo in the coming days after two days of negotiations in Doha this week.
Mediators have said they presented a bridging ceasefire proposal to both sides and that negotiations were making progress, but they also cautioned that there is still work to be done.
In Israel, Blinken is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.
Israel’s negotiating team on Saturday expressed “cautious optimism” on the possibility of advancing a deal, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office. However, Hamas has called for a ceasefire plan outlined by Biden in late May to be implemented instead of something that introduces “new conditions” from Israel.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu remains the main obstacle to a ceasefire and an exchange deal for the remaining captives and Palestinian prisoners.
“From day one, we said we will not accept a temporary arrangement, it was done in November 2023, and the Israelis undermined that,” Hamdan said.
“So we want a full arrangement … including a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from all parts of Gaza,” he said.
“Hamas has learned from the past that every time they were closer to a deal and everyone would think it was within reach, the Israelis would do something different, like committing atrocities, targeting or assassinating a leader,” Hassan Harari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera.
Among the sticking points are conditions that Israel added since the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on the proposal outlined in May – including continued Israeli presence on the Philadelphi Corridor separating the Egyptian region of Sinai from the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of checkpoints to monitor the movement of people from south to north.
“Netanyahu is procrastinating to make it tough for Hamas to agree,” Harari said. “But also from the Israeli perspective, there are some circles who believe these demands are legitimate.” The discussions will also include the list of captives’ names to be released in Gaza, the list of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, and the schedule for their release.
