Blinken indicates mediators will present updated ceasefire offer ‘in coming days’
US secretary’s remarks come amid mounting speculation of imminent ‘take it or leave it’ proposal; he says Saudi deal still possible before Biden’s term ends if ceasefire reached
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted Thursday that the mediators in the ongoing hostage negotiations will present an updated ceasefire proposal to Israel and Hamas in the coming days, amid reports that it will be framed as a “take it or leave it” offer.
“In the coming days we will share with Israel, and [Qatar and Egypt] will share with Hamas, our thoughts — the three [mediators] — on exactly how to resolve the remaining outstanding questions, and then it will be time for the parties to decide yes or no, and then we’ll see,” Blinken said during a press conference in Haiti.
He reiterated, on the record, what a senior Biden administration official had told reporters on Wednesday — that Israel and Hamas have reached agreement on 90 percent of the issues, with the main remaining obstacles being Israel’s deployment in the Philadelphi Corridor and issues surrounding the release of Palestinian security prisoners.
Blinken acknowledged that each day that goes by without a deal allows for “an intervening event, which simply pushes things off and runs the risk of derailing what is a pretty fragile apple cart.”
On Sunday, US President Joe Biden said his administration was “very close” to presenting the parties with a final offer.
Last month, Washington had already shared with the parties what it called a “final bridging proposal,” which has since undergone a series of changes, leading administration officials to drop the use of the word “final” when describing it.
Earlier Thursday, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Hamas and Israel have both toughened their positions regarding the hostage-prisoner exchange.
Channel 12 said the US is trying to find formulas to bridge those differences as it works on its new proposal, which the TV report said could be conveyed to the two sides as soon as this weekend.
Hamas, the report said, has increased the number of Palestinian security prisoners serving life terms for murder that it is demanding be released in the earliest days of the first 42-day phase of a deal. Previously, Hamas and Israel had agreed that 150 life-term murderers would be released from Israeli jails during the first phase in return for the five female surveillance soldiers held hostage. The TV report did not specify the higher number that Hamas is demanding.
The senior US official briefing reporters on Wednesday said “Hamas has been putting some things on the table that have been complete non-starters [regarding] the exchange, and they’re different than what was agreed months ago… Until that is worked out, you’re not going to have a deal.”
Further harming the process was Hamas’s execution of six Israeli hostages last week, the US official said, explaining that they had been negotiating based on a list of hostages that has since shrunk.
The killings are “coloring the discussions and have brought a sense of urgency to the process, but it has also called into question Hamas’s readiness to do a deal of any kind,” he added.
Israel, for its part, is pushing for a higher number of living hostages than previously agreed to be released in the deal’s first phase, in the so-called “humanitarian” category, Channel 12 said.
With regard to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand for the IDF to remain deployed along the Philadelphi Corridor at the Gaza-Egypt border during phase one, the TV report said the US is planning to present a map showing IDF forces still deployed there, but in smaller numbers than previously set out.
The US proposal would also provide for Israel to withdraw its troops from the Rafah border crossing between phases one and two of the deal, it said.
The report claimed the administration is increasingly less optimistic about the prospects of a deal, and that Israel is not optimistic at all.
Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu told Fox News that “there is not a deal in the making, unfortunately.”
On Wednesday evening, he told international media that “Hamas has rejected everything.” Apart from the dispute over the Philadelphi Corridor, he cited disagreements on the ratio of hostages to terrorists to be released, and Israel’s demand to veto the release of some terrorists and to exile others.
The families of hostages with dual American-Israeli citizenship were slated to hold another meeting with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday.
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Meanwhile, on Thursday evening, Netanyahu held a meeting with his security chiefs about preparations for tackling the security situation in the north, where Hezbollah has maintained relentless rocket fire since last October and tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from their homes.
Channel 13 said Netanyahu also used the forum to discuss Israel’s response to Hamas’s execution of the six hostages last week. The network said that he intentionally did not hold this meeting with the full cabinet and only invited Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, apparently to box out far-right ministers from the more sensitive discussion.
Nonetheless, a senior security official told the network that carrying out a retaliatory strike against Hamas at this moment in the negotiations could risk efforts to secure a hostage deal and place the lives of the hostages at further risk.
Also in his Thursday press conference in Haiti, Blinken insisted that an Israel-Saudi normalization deal is still possible before the end of US President Joe Biden’s time in office.
He acknowledged that a deal would first require a ceasefire in Gaza along with an Israeli agreement to a “credible pathway for a Palestinian state” — something Netanyahu has flatly rejected. “A lot of work would have to go into that,” Blinken admitted.
However, he stressed that both Israel and Saudi Arabia have made clear that they’re interested in such an agreement.
“I think if we can get the ceasefire in Gaza, there remains an opportunity through the balance of this administration to move forward on normalization,” Blinken said.
A pair of senior Congressional sources from opposing parties told The Times of Israel in July that the window for a deal before the November election had shut, though a faint chance for securing an agreement during the lame-duck period remained.
