What if he’s bluffing?: Blinken said to tell hostage families Netanyahu truly wants a deal this time

At a meeting with the families of Hamas-held hostages who hold US citizenship, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is convinced that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is truly committed to reaching a deal this time, Channel 12 reports.

Blinken met with the families, as he has done on numerous previous visits, shortly before his press conference earlier this evening.

He gave them a sense that a deal can be finalized within days, the report says, and told them it seemed that the prime minister is invested in achieving a deal.

“And what if he’s bluffing again?” one of the participants reportedly asked Blinken.

He is said to have laughed and said, “We’ll know. We have a way to measure if the prime minister is committed to a deal. And this time our assessment is that he is.”

He also reportedly told them that there is immense pressure on Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar to agree to the bridging proposal — including from the Qatari and Egyptian mediators.