Despite pessimism, Blinken says US will present new hostage deal proposal ‘very soon’
Speaking alongside UK counterpart in London, US Secretary of State says ‘not even a handful of issues’ remain as diplomats try to shift gloomy projections
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Standing alongside his British counterpart David Lammy in London, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated that a new formula for a hostage deal would be presented to Israel and Hamas in the near future.
“Very soon, we will put that before the parties and we will see what they say,” he said in a press conference, as pessimism has spread among Israeli and US negotiators in recent days.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Jerusalem neither knows whether a new proposal will be presented nor what would be in it.
The comments come after reports indicated growing pessimism in the US that a deal will be possible, with a senior US official describing new Hamas demands that terrorists serving life sentences be released for civilian hostages in the first stage as a “poison pill,” in remarks reported by The Washington Post Sunday.
Also Sunday, unnamed Israeli sources told Channel 12 that the chances of a phased hostage-ceasefire agreement being achieved on the basis of Israel’s May proposal are “close to zero” and there is “very broad pessimism” among the Israeli negotiators.
But Blinken and Lammy sounded more optimistic at the press conference after they held a private meeting that focused on support for Ukraine.
“More than 90 percent of the issues have been agreed, decided, so we’re down to a handful of issues — not even a handful of issues — that are hard but are fully resolvable,” said Blinken.
Lammy concurred, noting that the 90% assessment is “completely correct,” and said it is now “in the hands of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar to get us over the line and to take that deal that is on the table.”
The US is working closely with Qatar and Egypt “to bridge any remaining gaps” between Israel and Hamas as they craft a new formula for a deal, said Blinken.
He noted the “strong interest that everyone in the region has” in a ceasefire, stressing that it is “clearly in Israel’s interest.”
While Lammy emphasized that “there can be no role for Hamas going forward,” Blinken did not mention the defeat of Hamas.
White House officials told senior Egyptian and Qatari officials on Monday that the US was “frustrated” with new Hamas demands on the release of prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli prisons, which it is seeking in exchange for hostages it has held since October 7, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The Biden administration also asked Cairo and Doha to push Hamas to back off its recent demands, according to the source, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
After talks failed to advance in recent weeks, the US was widely expected to put forward a new proposal to bridge gaps between the sides on a hostage and ceasefire deal. But with Hamas’s hardened stance, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Monday that the US was being cautious and did not want to release a proposal it knows Hamas will reject.
It appears that plan is back on course.
Reports Sunday indicated that there was broad pessimism over chances for a deal both among Israeli negotiators and US mediators, who were unhappy with both Hamas’s demands and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that troops remain on the Gaza-Egypt border, as well as his recent public comments.
However, two senior US officials involved in hostage negotiations told a policy conference in Washington, DC, on Monday that disagreements over the Philadelphi Corridor on the border, which Israel says will be used by Hamas to smuggle in arms from the Sinai, were not the reason there is no deal.
Instead, according to the Ynet news site, they blamed the new Hamas demands.
The officials at the invitation-only Middle East-America Dialogue reportedly noted that the Philadelphi Corridor is not even mentioned in the existing proposal. Rather, the point of contention is whether the route is considered to be in a densely populated area; the current proposal stipulates an Israeli withdrawal from such areas.
The issue is “exaggerated,” they said, adding that the prisoner release is the main sticking point. They claimed there had been agreement on the issue, but progress was derailed when Hamas murdered six hostages in late August and the terms of the swap were changed.
Contradicting reports and comments indicating that the US had lost patience with Israel as well as Hamas, the officials reportedly claimed that Israel did not need to be pressured, and said families of hostages were mistaken to denounce Netanyahu over the lack of a deal.
At times, they allowed, Israel could do a bit more, but they are focused on Hamas.
It is believed that 97 hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The shock assault saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
