Blinken heads to Israel for 9th time since Oct. 7, hoping to close hostage-truce deal
Biden says Gaza deal closer than ever after two days of Doha talks not attended by Hamas; terror group politburo claims signs of progress ‘an illusion,’ decries ‘American diktats’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to Israel on Sunday as American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators seek to cement a Gaza hostages-for-ceasefire deal after two days of negotiations in Doha.
Making his ninth trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war broke out with the Palestinian terrorist group’s October 7 attack, Blinken was set to meet Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli negotiators were set to hold further talks in Cairo later Sunday, and working groups remain in Doha.
Mediators have said negotiations were making progress, and US President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday, “We are closer than we have ever been.”
Another such summit is reportedly tentatively scheduled, this time for Cairo, on Wednesday or Thursday. US officials have said they aim to finalize the long-sought deal by the end of this coming week.
Also Friday, a senior Biden administration official told reporters, “What we’ve done is taken the gaps that remain and have bridged those in a way that we think basically is a deal that is now ready to close and implement and move forward.”
But Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri undercut the cautious optimism, telling AFP that signs of progress after two days of talks in Doha were “an illusion.”
“We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats,” he said.
Previous optimism during months of on-off truce talks has proven unfounded.
But the stakes have risen since the late July killings in quick succession of two Iran-backed terrorist leaders, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s military chief Fuad Shukr, and as the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip has deepened with a feared polio outbreak.
Iran has indicated that it is holding off on striking Israel while the hostage-ceasefire talks are ongoing but will launch a direct attack if the negotiations fail or it perceives Jerusalem is dragging out negotiations.
After mediators announced they had put forward a “bridging proposal” to close remaining gaps between the warring sides, Hamas said it rejected “new conditions” from Israel and called for a plan outlined by Biden in late May to be implemented.
The framework for the deal he announced on May 27 included three stages, with the first six-week period seeing a pause in Israeli ground operations and withdrawal of troops in exchange for the release of 33 hostages in the categories of women, children, elderly and wounded, alongside Israel freeing 990 Palestinian prisoners.
Before Blinken departed for Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Netanyahu’s office called for “heavy pressure” on Hamas to reach a breakthrough. It also said Israel’s negotiators were cautiously optimistic after the Doha summit.
The terrorist organization as well as some analysts and Israeli protesters have accused Netanyahu of hamstringing a deal to safeguard his ruling coalition, whose hard-right flanks want the war to continue until Hamas is destroyed.
However, speaking with reporters about the talks in Doha, a US official said the Israeli team dispatched to Doha was now “clearly empowered,” in an apparent nod to Netanyahu, who has been accused of not giving his negotiators enough leeway to secure a deal.
The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251. It is believed that 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. Israel says it seeks to minimize civilian casualties and notes that Hamas fights from homes, hospitals, mosques and schools.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 332.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
