The United States has announced that Israel has accepted a proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the announcement after a 2 1/2 hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
He did not say whether the proposal addressed Israel's demands for control over two strategic corridors inside Gaza, which Hamas has said is a nonstarter, or other issues that have long bedevilled the negotiations.
“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel supports the bridging proposal," Blinken told reporters. “The next important step is for Hamas to say yes.'"
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to broker an agreement, with the talks repeatedly stalling.
Mediators will meet again this week in Cairo to try to cement a cease-fire. Blinken will travel to Egypt on Tuesday for meetings in the Mediterranean city of el-Alamein after he wraps up his Israel stop. He met one-on-one with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for 2½ hours Monday and with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant later in the day.
This comes as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities, and fears remain high that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded border on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November, and around 110 are believed to still be inside Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third of them are dead.
Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive has killed 40,005 Palestinians, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday. Diplomats hope a cease-fire deal would persuade Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas' top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that was widely blamed on Israel.
(AP Inputs)
