From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 19, 2024
Netanyahu says he backs US hostage deal proposal, hails ‘positive’ meeting with Blinken
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
After a three-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu puts out a statement publicly backing the latest US bridging proposal that was presented to Israel and conveyed to Hamas at the end of the summit in Doha last week.
“The Prime Minister reiterated Israel’s commitment to the current American proposal on the release of our hostages, which takes into account Israel’s security needs, which he strongly insists on,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement issued in Hebrew and English.
Hamas rejected the US formula last night.
In its readout of the Netanyahu-Blinken meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office goes out of its way to stress that the meeting was “positive” and was held in a “good atmosphere.”
On Saturday, Israel had cautiously welcomed the new US “bridging proposal,” designed to facilitate and expedite a hostage-ceasefire deal, which was conveyed to Israel and to Hamas on Friday at the end of two days of talks between Israel and the mediators in Doha. The PMO put out a statement at the time that the proposal “contains components that are acceptable to Israel.”
Netanyahu has been demanding that any hostage-truce deal provide for an ongoing IDF presence along the Egypt-Gaza border and include a mechanism to prevent a return of armed Hamas gunmen to northern Gaza. He has also insisted that Israel retain the right to resume the battle against Hamas in order to achieve all the war’s declared aims — the release of all hostages, the destruction of Hamas, and the prevention of Gaza posing a future terrorist threat to Israel. It is not clear how the US “bridging proposal,” which has not been published, seeks to resolve these issues.
Blinken is scheduled to meet Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv shortly after 4 p.m.
