Blinken: Israel’s flexibility on hostage deal speaks louder than its Rafah rhetoric
US secretary of state condemns attack by group of Israelis on Jordanian aid convoy heading into Gaza, says ‘Israel is better than this’
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday it was clear Israel was willing to make “big compromises” in order to achieve a truce and hostage release deal with Hamas, and that the terror group was responsible for ensuring such a deal comes to fruition.
“It’s clear [Israel would] like to see that happen,” Blinken told NBC News.
Of the proposed deal, he said: “It gets an immediate ceasefire, it gets hostages home and it gives us something to build on.”
Asked if the chance for a hostage deal could be quashed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel will move forward with its imminent offensive in Rafah, the southernmost Gaza city with a wartime population of more than one million people, Blinken said “people say things; let’s focus on what they’re doing, what we’re doing.”
“The most immediate thing, the most urgent thing is seeing in the days ahead what Hamas’s response is to a very strong proposal that’s on the table,” he added. “Everyone agrees that this is a good deal, and one that would result in, again, an immediate ceasefire, which everyone wants, and getting the hostages home, which everyone should want. That’s where the focus is.”
Asked what steps the US will take if Israel moves forward with an operation in Rafah rather than pursuing a deal with Hamas, Blinken said he did not want to discuss “hypotheticals about what might happen.”
“We’re focused on seeing if this deal can happen, as it should happen. And we’ll see what Hamas does. It’s on them.”
The US secretary of state reiterated, however, that the US has yet to see “a clear, credible plan to protect civilians” in Rafah, and that until it does, it “cannot and will not support a major military operation” there.
While Israeli officials have repeatedly vowed to enter Rafah, citing the need to take out Hamas’s remaining forces in the southernmost Gaza city, Blinken said “there are also better ways to do what Israel needs to do in terms of dealing with the remaining Hamas problem.”
The latest Israeli offer reportedly includes a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of almost a thousand Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for dozens of Israeli hostages. Israel has lowered the number of hostages it seeks to have released in the first stage of the deal.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that one of the timelines under discussion is a 10-week pause in the fighting in exchange for 33 living hostages.
The hostages expected to be released first if a deal is reached belong to a so-called humanitarian category — women, children, men over 50 and those who are sick.
Israel is also open to the possibility of Gazans moving back to the north of the Strip without going through Israeli security checks. One of the possibilities under examination is Egypt being responsible for security checks, the official said, though nothing has been finalized.
In no circumstance would Israel agree to declare an end to the war, the official stressed.
The Wall Street Journal, citing Egyptian officials, said that a proposal that Israel helped draft, but has not yet endorsed, would include “the release of at least 20 hostages over three weeks for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.”
The truce could then be extended for one hostage release per day.
The Journal reported that a second phase would include a 10-week truce during which Israel and Hamas would discuss the release of more hostages held in Gaza and a pause in fighting for up to a year. Hamas was initially positive about that proposal, but balked over the fact that it does not end the war permanently.
‘Israel is better than this’
Blinken toured on Wednesday the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza to view efforts to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the Strip.
Prior to Blinken’s arrival at the sight, Jordan, who is supplying some of the aid, complained that two of its convoys carrying food, flour and more aid were “attacked by settlers,” without giving details of what happened, but adding that both convoys managed to continue on their journey and reach their destination.
Blinken told NBC the incident was “unacceptable,” but stressed that the attackers “were arrested by the Israeli authorities. That sends a very strong message. Now, they need to continue to send a strong message that this aid cannot be, must not be interfered with as it goes through Israel. And look, Israel is better than this.”
International humanitarian organizations and the United Nations have said throughout the war between Israel and Hamas that Gaza’s population is at risk of suffering from a humanitarian crisis, prompting international pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the enclave.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people were murdered in Israel, mostly civilians, and 253 were kidnapped into Gaza amid rampant sexual violence and acts of horrific brutality.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent war in the Strip, but the number cannot be independently verified and is believed to include both Hamas fighters and civilians, some of whom were killed as a consequence of the terror group’s own rocket misfires.
The Israel Defense Forces says it has killed over 13,000 terrorists in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 who were killed inside Israel on and immediately following October 7. The army also says 263 soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the ground operation.
Agencies contributed to this report.
