Blinken, mediators from Egypt and Qatar pin their hopes on US\u201dbridging proposal\u201d aimed at narrowing gaps between two
\n DOHA
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought during a whirlwind trip to the Middle East to inject urgency into efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire deal, but departed the region on Tuesday with an agreement between Israel and Hamas still elusive.
\nBlinken and mediators from Egypt and Qatar have pinned their hopes on a US\u201dbridging proposal\u201d aimed at narrowing the gaps between the two sides in the 10-month-old war, after negotiations last week paused without a breakthrough.
\nThe deal \u201cneeds 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,\u201d Blinken told reporters in Doha before departing for Washington.
\nA senior Biden administration official travelling with Blinken said the US expects the ceasefire talks to continue this week.
\nBlinken travelled to Egypt for talks on Tuesday with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and then to Qatar.
\nAfter meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Blinken said Israel had accepted the proposal and urged Hamas to do the same. The Palestinian group has not explicitly rejected it, but says it overturns previously agreed terms.
\nBlinken was asked in Qatar about Israeli troop withdrawal terms within the ceasefire framework and about an Axios report that quoted Netanyahu as saying he may have convinced Blinken that Israel should keep troops in the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza.
\n\u201cThe United States does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel,\u201d Blinken said. \u201cMore specifically, the agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of (Israel Defense Forces) withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that. So that\u2019s as much as I know. That\u2019s what I\u2019m very clear about.\u201d
\nBlinken did not comment directly on the Axios report, a post on social media site X, opens new tab. Netanyahu\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.
\nBoth Hamas and Egypt oppose Israel keeping troops in the Philadelphi Corridor, but Netanyahu has insisted they are needed to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza. A senior U.S. official disputed the Axios report earlier on Tuesday.
\nEgyptian security sources said the US has proposed an international presence in the Philadelphi Corridor area, a suggestion the sources said could be acceptable to Cairo if limited to a maximum of six months.
\n\u201cThe ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region,\u201d Sisi said after meeting Blinken.
\n\u2018Last opportunity\u2019
\nAt stake in the talks is the fate of tiny, crowded Gaza, where Israel\u2019s military campaign has killed more than 40,000 people since October according to Palestinian health authorities, and of the remaining hostages being held there.
\nBlinken has called the latest push for a deal \u201cprobably the best, possibly the last opportunity\u201d, and said his meeting with Netanyahu was constructive. He said it was incumbent on Hamas to accept the bridging proposal.
\nAsked about Blinken\u2019s comment, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: \u201cBlinken is insisting on not quitting the sphere of lies, and that is one of the reasons for the failure of efforts to reach an agreement.\u201d
\nQatar\u2019s foreign minister told Blinken his country is committed to its role as a mediator in the ceasefire talks, along with Egypt and the US
\nIn a phone call, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani stressed to Blinken the importance of consolidating regional and international efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and a hostage-prisoner swap deal, Qatar\u2019s foreign ministry said.
\nBoth men underscored that the bridging proposal presented by negotiators addressed the remaining gaps in a manner that allows for swift implementation of the deal, US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel in a statement.
\nOfficials from the US, Hamas, Israel, Egypt and Qatar have not spelled out what is in the proposal or how it differs from previous versions.
\nHamas accuses Israel of obstructing an agreement with new demands and says the group remains committed to terms it agreed with mediators in July based on a proposal made by the US in May. Netanyahu denies obstructing a deal.
\nMonths of on-off talks have circled the same issues, with Israel saying the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force and Hamas saying it will only accept a permanent, not temporary, ceasefire.
\nThe US official said even if Hamas were to agree on the bridging proposal immediately, there would have to be additional conversations to iron out details on implementation of the deal.
\nHostages recovered
\nOn Tuesday, Israel\u2019s military said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from southern Gaza. According to Israeli authorities, 109 hostages now remain in the Palestinian territory, around a third of them believed to be dead.
\nIn Gaza, Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in central and southern areas on Tuesday, and Palestinian health authorities said at least 39 people had been killed in Israeli strikes, including on a school housing displaced people.
\nIsrael\u2019s military said it had struck Hamas militants embedded in the school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blinken, mediators from Egypt and Qatar pin their hopes on US\u201dbridging proposal\u201d aimed at narrowing gaps between two DOHA US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought during a whirlwind trip to the Middle East to inject urgency into efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire deal, but departed the region on Tuesday with an agreement between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-426370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n