Blinken urges ‘maximum flexibility’ from Israel and Hamas in hostage-ceasefire talks

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called for both Israel and Hamas to demonstrate “maximum flexibility” in talks on a hostage-ceasefire deal, as an American official said “maximalist” remarks attributed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about maintaining control of the Gaza-Egypt border were not helpful to reaching an agreement.

“It’s so important that the negotiators working the details of this have maximum flexibility from the Israeli government and Hamas’s leadership,” Blinken stressed in remarks to reporters as he left Doha on Tuesday evening, adding, “These things sometimes take more time than you want.”

The rebuke from a senior US official traveling with Blinken in the Middle East, requesting anonymity to talk about sensitive discussions, came after Netanyahu reportedly told hardline relatives of hostages and bereaved families in a meeting that “Israel won’t leave the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor under any circumstances.”

Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not withdraw from those two areas in southern and central Gaza, respectively, and that troops must be stationed there for strategic and security reasons.

The Philadelphi Corridor runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, where Hamas for years smuggled in arms and weapons components. The Netzarim Corridor was carved out by the IDF during the war, and aims to prevent armed Hamas fighters from returning to northern Gaza, as well as allowing the military greater freedom to maneuver through the enclave. Earlier this week, Israeli negotiators were said to have told the prime minister that his demand for an ongoing IDF presence on the Philadelphi Corridor was dooming the deal.

“Maximalist statements like this are not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line,” said the official, who also denied an Axios report that said Netanyahu might have managed to convince the top US diplomat on the issue.

“The only thing Secretary Blinken and the United States are convinced of is the need for getting a ceasefire proposal across the finish line,” the senior administration official said.

While Blinken had reportedly been slated to meet with Qatar’s Emir Tamim Al-Thani after sitting down with top leaders in Israel and Egypt, the secretary only ended up getting an audience with a relatively low-level minister, Qatar’s Minister of State at the Foreign Affairs Ministry Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi.

Speaking to reporters before departing Qatar, Blinken said a ceasefire deal needs to get done in the coming days, adding the United States, Egypt and Qatar would do everything possible to get Hamas on board with the “bridging proposal” that the US drew up at the end of last week’s Doha summit talks.

“Time is of the essence,” Blinken said. “This needs to get done, and it needs to get done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line.”

Hamas has issued statements rejecting the US bridging proposal and insisting on a permanent ceasefire in the war and the full withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza. Israel’s Channel 12 reported Tuesday that the new US proposal has been received by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, and that he is expected to reject it.

The Philadelphi obstacle

According to an earlier statement by the Gvura Forum, which represents some families of slain soldiers, Netanyahu told the group at a meeting on Tuesday that he’s “not sure there will be a deal,” that any deal would “safeguard Israel’s interests,” and that “Israel won’t leave the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor under any circumstances.”

Channel 12 on Tuesday evening broadcast a sequence of brief clips of Netanyahu’s remarks at the meeting which imply, but do not fully show, that he set out some of those specific positions: “We took hold of the Philadelphi Corridor; we took hold of the Rafah border crossing…,” he says in one snippet. “We are making an effort to return the hostages…,” he says in another. “But the other issue is to retain our strategic security assets in the face of heavy pressure at home and abroad. And we are standing firm,” he says in the third.

Meanwhile, an unnamed source in the Israeli negotiating team also accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks with his Tuesday remarks, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

“Netanyahu’s statement is intended to blow up the negotiations, there’s no other way about it,” the source told Kan. “The prime minister knows that we are in a critical period during which we’re working on solutions for the Philadelphi Corridor and Netzarim ahead of the next summit.”

“He knows there is progress — and then he puts out statements that are the opposite of what was agreed upon with the mediators,” the source added.

Nonetheless, the New York Times reported Tuesday that the US bridging proposal does allow a reduced number of Israeli troops to continue to patrol part of the Philadelphi Corridor.

However, officials told the Times that the suggestion of a limited IDF presence is likely to be shot down by Hamas due to its long-held demand for a full Israeli withdrawal. It added that Egypt has also expressed displeasure, and Egyptian officials have warned that the extended presence of Israeli troops would pose national security concerns for Cairo.

The officials said that another of Netanyahu’s other “non-negotiable” demands also posed issues at the talks in Doha late last week, after the US asked to delay in-depth conversations regarding Israel’s demand to screen displaced Palestinians returning to the northern part of the Strip, to ensure they aren’t carrying weapons.

For now, the Biden administration has maintained that Netanyahu is, in fact, sticking with the latest bridging proposal — which he and Blinken separately said he had accepted on Monday.

As he left Doha, Blinken indicated opposition to Netanyahu’s reported insistence that Israeli troops remain in the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors. “The United States does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel. The [final bridging] agreement is very clear on the schedule and the location of IDF withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that,” he said.

Still, the secretary refused to respond directly to Netanyahu’s reported remarks. “I can’t speak to what [Netanyahu] is quoted as saying. I can just speak to what I heard directly from him yesterday when we spent three hours together, including Israel’s endorsement of the bridging proposal.”

Blinken added that “it’s so clearly in the interest of all concerned — starting with Israel — to bring this to a close,” and said, “The hostages depend on it, the security of the country depends on it.”

Gaza, he elaborated, in many ways “is the key to actually move things in the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah in a better direction. It’s the key to making sure we can take down the temperature in the Red Sea with the Houthis. It’s the key to seeing if we can pursue a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which both countries remain very interested in. It’s the key to putting everyone — starting with Israel — on a path to greater peace and security.”

Blinken also noted the American citizens who remain in Hamas captivity since being seized during the October 7 terror onslaught, saying he “was very clear about the American interest in making sure that our people come home to their families and that the remains of those who have perished are brought back.”

Meanwhile, a US official did acknowledge to The Times of Israel that there is concern from both sides regarding the implementation of the deal.

Netanyahu’s position has been criticized in Israel, with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calling Tuesday for an immediate deal before the hostages “all die.”

“Enough with the briefings, enough with the tweets,” Lapid wrote on X. “All of Netanyahu’s attempts to sabotage the negotiations should stop. A deal now, before they all die.”

Hundreds of protesters blocked traffic as they gathered on Begin Road in Tel Aviv Tuesday evening to demonstrate for a hostage deal, following the recovery of the bodies of six hostages in an overnight operation, all of whom were abducted alive on October 7.

Protesters holding images of Avraham Munder, Alex Dancyg, Chaim Peri, Yagev Buchshtab, Yoram Metzger, and Nadav Popplewell marched behind a banner reading “Netanyahu is sacrificing the hostages.”

Activists also wrote the names of hostages on the road, and chanted that the “blood of the hostages are on the hands of the government of horrors.”

‘We didn’t know then that we had sealed the fate of the elderly’

Israeli officials acknowledged that negotiators had the chance to secure the release of some elderly men being held by Hamas during the weeklong truce in November, but turned it down fearing it would jeopardize efforts to free the remaining women hostages.

Negotiators now say they are unsure that the decision to accept only the release of women and children, rather than men, during the weeklong truce was the right choice to have made, Channel 12 reported Tuesday evening.

The November truce broke down after seven days when Hamas claimed it was unable to release more civilian women and children, and said it could instead release hostages from other categories, namely civilian men.

Israel refused, saying that it would violate the terms of the negotiated deal, as it knew that, at that point, the terror group was still holding roughly 17 women and two children.

Now, speaking to Channel 12, an anonymous source who was involved in the negotiations for the truce, said that the issue of whether or not to allow Hamas to change the terms of the deal and extend it for at least an eighth day was “a very difficult moral dilemma.”

“We didn’t know then that we had sealed the fate of the elderly,” the source was quoted as saying. “But de facto, we could have perhaps released them, and they died.”

The report added that National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot, who had been an observer in the now-disbanded war cabinet, had spoken in favor of allowing Hamas to violate the terms of the agreement and instead release the men, arguing that it would be better than nothing, as it would be months until the opportunity arose again to release the hostages — men or women.

It is believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 30 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.