TEL AVIV (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged high Israeli officers on Monday to just accept and implement a plan for postwar Gaza as he pushed for extra worldwide stress on Hamas to conform to a cease-fire proposal newly endorsed by the U.N. Safety Council.
On his newest pressing mission to the Center East — his eighth because the Israel-Hamas warfare started in October — Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Protection Minister Yoav Gallant after talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to push the proposal, which faces new uncertainty following Israel’s hostage rescue operation that killed many Palestinians and turmoil in Netanyahu’s authorities.
Blinken advised Netanyahu that “the US and different world leaders will stand behind the excellent proposal outlined by President Biden that might result in a direct ceasefire in Gaza, the discharge of all hostages, and a major and sustained enhance in humanitarian help for distribution all through Gaza,” the State Division mentioned.
After the U.N. Safety Council handed a U.S.-sponsored decision endorsing the cease-fire proposal, Hamas mentioned it welcomed the transfer and was able to work with mediators in oblique negotiations with Israel to implement it. The assertion was among the many strongest from Hamas to this point however careworn the group would proceed “our battle” to finish the Israeli occupation and work on establishing a “totally sovereign” Palestinian state.
Nevertheless, the militant group nonetheless has not formally responded to the proposal it obtained 10 days in the past. Blinken once more urged Hamas to just accept it, saying it has extensive worldwide help and Israel has accepted it, although Netanyahu has expressed skepticism.
“I do know that there are those that are pessimistic in regards to the prospects,” Blinken advised reporters earlier than leaving Cairo for Israel on the journey that additionally will take him to Jordan and Qatar. “That’s comprehensible. Hamas continues to point out extraordinary cynicism in its actions, a disinterest not solely within the well-being and safety of Israelis but additionally Palestinians.”
Whereas Biden, Blinken and different U.S. officers have praised the rescue of 4 Israeli hostages on Saturday, the operation resulted within the deaths of 274 Palestinian civilians and will complicate the cease-fire push by emboldening Israel and hardening Hamas’ resolve to hold on combating within the warfare that began with its Oct. 7 assault in Israel.
In his talks with el-Sissi, Blinken additionally mentioned plans for post-conflict governance and reconstruction in Gaza.
Netanyahu and his authorities have resisted requires any “day after” plan that might bar Israel from having some type of safety presence within the territory. Blinken mentioned he would urge Israel to give you alternate options that might be acceptable.
“It might be superb if Israel put ahead its personal concepts on this, and I’ll be speaking to the federal government about that,” Blinken mentioned. “However a technique or one other, we’ve acquired to have these plans, we’ve acquired to have them in place, we’ve acquired to be able to go if we need to benefit from a cease-fire.”
The three-phase plan requires the discharge of extra hostages and a short lived pause in hostilities that may final so long as it takes to barter the second part, which goals to carry the discharge of all hostages, a “full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza” and “a everlasting finish to hostilities,” in keeping with the American-drafted decision put earlier than the U.N. Safety Council. The third part requires reconstruction in Gaza.
Though the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative and hundreds of Israelis have demonstrated to help it, Netanyahu has been skeptical, saying what has been offered publicly shouldn’t be correct and that Israel continues to be dedicated to destroying Hamas.
Netanyahu’s far-right allies have threatened to break down his authorities if he implements the plan. Benny Gantz, a well-liked centrist, resigned on Sunday from the three-member Warfare Cupboard after saying he would achieve this if the prime minister didn’t formulate a brand new plan for postwar Gaza.
Blinken has met with Netanyahu, Gallant, Gantz and Israeli opposition chief Yair Lapid on practically all his earlier journeys to Israel. Officers mentioned Blinken is predicted to satisfy on Tuesday with Gantz, whom Netanyahu had urged to not step down within the aftermath of the hostage rescue.
Regardless of Blinken’s roughly once-a-month visits to the area because the warfare started, the battle has floor on with greater than 37,120 Palestinians killed, in keeping with the Gaza Well being Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its counts. Hamas and different militants killed some 1,200 individuals within the Oct. 7 assault, largely civilians, and took round 250 individuals hostage.
The warfare has severely hindered the circulate of meals, drugs and different provides to the Palestinians in Gaza, who’re going through widespread starvation. U.N. companies say greater than 1 million individuals within the territory may expertise the best stage of hunger by mid-July.
In Jordan, Blinken will participate in an emergency worldwide convention on bettering the circulate of help to Gaza.
___
Observe AP’s protection of the warfare in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
