(Bloomberg) -- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted a cease-fire proposal to halt the war in Gaza and the next step is for “Hamas to say yes,” putting the onus on the group to end the 10-month conflict even as violence continued.
Blinken, on his ninth trip to the region since Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, called the proposed accord “a bridging agreement” and acknowledged that not everything is spelled out in detail. But it builds on a proposal that President Joe Biden put forward in late May that both sides had balked at. Earlier in the day, Blinken had called it “the best, maybe the last opportunity” to free the hostages taken in the Hamas attack.
Blinken said the US “will never give up,” but that each passing day increases the risk of harm to the hostages and raises the chance that the talks will be derailed. Iran and Hezbollah have vowed retribution for recent assassinations that they say were the work of Israel, and Blinken’s trip was seen in part as an effort to deter such a strike.
The top US diplomat said he will next travel on to Egypt and Qatar to understand what their leaders are hearing from Hamas on the next steps.
Blinken emphasized the need for an “enduring cease-fire,” a phrase that fell between Netanyahu’s past insistence on resuming the war until Hamas is destroyed and the demand of Hamas for a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
In a statement, Netanyahu described his meeting with Blinken as “good and important” and voiced appreciation for what he described as US recognition, amid the truce efforts, of vital Israeli security needs.
But it’s not clear the two sides are ready to do a deal, regardless of what the US says. Earlier, Netanyahu had accused Hamas — backed by Iran and designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union — of being “completely obstinate.” International pressure should, he said, be directed at the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be in hiding in Gaza.
Hamas released a statement after Netanyahu’s statement detailing what it said were Israel’s new demands that would prevent a deal.
“We hold Netanyahu fully responsible,” the group said.
Underscoring Israel’s top priority in a deal, Netanyahu said the maximum number of living hostages held by Hamas should go free as part of a proposed first-phase cease-fire. Dozens of people holding up photos of the hostages spent hours demonstrating outside Blinken’s hotel in Tel Aviv, using signs and chants to urge him to pressure Netanyahu to accept a deal.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also claimed responsibility for what they said was a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv late on Sunday. Israeli police said the assailant was killed and another person was injured.
The two groups threatened, in a statement on Monday, to carry out more such attacks “as long as the occupation’s massacres, displacement of civilians, and the continuation of the assassination policy continue.”
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas fighters swarmed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly 240 hostage. Israel responded with an air and ground assault that’s killed more than 40,000 people, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza.
The conflict has upended Middle Eastern geopolitics, with Israel and Iran trading fire directly and the Jewish state coming under attack from other groups supported by Tehran, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Militias in Syria and Iraq have also attacked US bases, and the Houthis have effectively closed the southern Red Sea to Western ships with drone and missile attacks on vessels.
Tensions High
Tensions have been particularly high since the assassinations late last month of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut and Hamas’ political chief in Tehran. Israel claimed the first attack but has neither confirmed nor denied killing Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas chief. Iran and Hamas said Israel was to blame.
Iran has said it will retaliate against Israel, but hasn’t said how or when. The US has moved more military forces to the region to protect Israel in case of missile and drone strikes from Iran or from Hezbollah.
Iran said Monday that it welcomed the cease-fire negotiations but that they are “not directly related to Iran’s right to respond to Israel.”
(Updates with additional Netanyahu, Hamas comments starting in seventh paragraph)
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