As Blinken visits Egypt and Qatar, the US is pressuring Hamas to agree to a revised agreement that would allow Israel to maintain a military presence in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas insists that any ceasefire agreement must result in a permanent end to Israel’s war in Gaza, and has accused the United States of offering a revised deal as “only buying time for Israel to continue its massacres.”
As Palestinian groups released details of Israel’s new terms, they urged the world to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign the deal proposed by US President Joe Biden on May 31 and supported by the UN Security Council on June 11.
“Israel has backed down from the issues included in Biden’s proposal. Netanyahu’s statement that he has agreed to the updated proposal shows that the administration has failed to persuade the previous agreement,” Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Monday.
On Tuesday, Biden said Hamas was “backing away” from the deal agreed to by Israel.
“It’s still happening, but it’s not predictable,” he said as he left the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “Israel says they can handle it… Hamas is now going away.”
Hamdan’s comments came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had a “very constructive meeting” with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Monday, and that Netanyahu “assured me that Israel is receptive to the proposal for reconnection.”
“This is a defining moment, perhaps the best and last chance. [Israeli] “We must bring the hostages home, we must achieve a ceasefire, and we must put everyone on a better path to lasting peace and security,” Blinken said.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had found the bodies of six prisoners taken captive in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza.
The US made its latest proposal after new talks opened last week in the Qatari capital Doha.
Hamas said the new proposal met Netanyahu’s conditions, including a refusal to accept a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of troops from Gaza, and an insistence on maintaining control of the Netzarim corridor dividing the north and south of the area, the Rafah border crossing, and the Philadelphia corridor on the border with Egypt.
Blinken traveled to Egypt’s Mediterranean city of El Alamein on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at his summer palace.
He is then scheduled to meet with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha.
Egypt and Qatar are working with the United States to broker a ceasefire in the 10-month-long Gaza conflict.
Biden’s framework would freeze fighting for the first six weeks, during which Israeli prisoners would be swapped for Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza.
Netanyahu said on Monday that negotiators were aiming to “release as many living hostages as possible” in the first phase of a ceasefire.
According to the Israeli Gaza Health Ministry, at least 40,173 people have been killed and 92,857 injured in the Israeli war in Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 were taken prisoner in the Hamas-led offensive on October 7.
