Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Monday
\nRIYADH
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian fighter group.
\nHamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Monday to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.
\n\u201cHamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,\u201d Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
\n\u201cThe only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that they will make the right decision.\u201d
\nA source briefed on the talks said Israel\u2019s proposal entailed a deal for the release of fewer than 40 of the roughly 130 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel.
\nA second phase of a truce would consist of a \u201cperiod of sustained calm\u201d\u2013Israel\u2019s compromise response to a Hamas demand for a permanent ceasefire.
\nA total of 253 hostages were seized in a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which about 1,200 Israelis were also killed, according to Israeli counts.
\nIsrael retaliated by imposing a total siege on Gaza and mounting an air and ground assault that has killed about 34,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
\nPalestinians are suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine in a humanitarian crisis brought on by the offensive that has demolished much of the territory.
\nBritain\u2019s Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, also described the Israeli proposal as \u201cgenerous\u201d.
\nIt included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.
\n\u201cI hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying \u2018take that deal\u2019,\u201d Cameron said.
\nCameron is among several foreign ministers in Riyadh, including from the US, France, Jordan and Egypt, as part of a diplomatic push to bring an end to the Gaza war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Monday RIYADH US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian fighter group. Hamas negotiators were expected to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n