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Top US diplomat Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept a truce in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to send troops into its far southern city of Rafah.
“Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home — and to get it now,” Blinken said as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
“And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”
Herzog’s role is largely ceremonial but later Blinken was due to meet the hawkish Netanyhu to press US calls for a truce, more aid into Gaza and better protection for civilians.
Hours before Blinken landed in Tel Aviv late Tuesday, the right-wing premier fired a shot across his bows, vowing to send Israeli ground troops into Rafah despite US concerns for the safety of the 1.5 million civilians sheltering in Gaza’s far southern city.
“We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal,” he told families of some of the hostages still being held in Gaza, his office said.
Netanyahu’s comments came as Hamas was weighing the latest plan for a truce proposed in Cairo talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
The Palestinian militant group said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas, whose envoys returned from Cairo talks to their base in Qatar, would “discuss the ideas and the proposal”, said a Hamas source, adding that “we are keen to respond as quickly as possible”.
An Israeli official told AFP the government “will wait for answers until Wednesday night”, and then “make a decision” whether to send envoys to Cairo.
On the previous leg of his regional tour in Jordan, Blinken said a Gaza truce and the redoubling of aid deliveries went hand in hand.
A truce is “the most effective way to relieve the suffering” of civilians in Gaza, he told reporters near Amman.
Blinken saw off a first Jordanian truck convoy of aid heading to Gaza through the Erez crossing reopened by Israel.
“It is real and important progress, but more still needs to be done,” he said.
UN agencies have warned that without urgent intervention, famine looms in Gaza, particularly in northern areas which are hardest to reach.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said an Israeli assault on Rafah would “be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee”.
AFP
