“Prime Minister Netanyahu committed to sending his senior expert team back to either Doha or to Egypt to try to complete this process, but we look to Hamas, first and foremost, to get behind the bridging proposal,” Blinken said, referring to a US blueprint to close the gaps.
Blinken urged Hamas to accept the bridging proposal and hostage release deal after what he said was a “very constructive” meeting with Netanyahu.
He had earlier said the latest push for a deal was probably the best and possibly last opportunity, urging both sides towards agreement.
In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal – that he supports it
However, with the Palestinian Islamist group announcing a resumption of suicide bombing inside Israel after many years, and doctors saying Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across Gaza on Monday, there are few signs of conciliation on the ground.
“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal – that he supports it,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
“It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same, and then the parties, with the help of the mediators – the United States, Egypt and Qatar – have to come together and complete the process of reaching clear understandings about how they’ll implement the commitments that they’ve made under this agreement.”
Months 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, and not a temporary, ceasefire.
Blinken also said on Monday the US and Israel were working towards a plan to vaccinate Gazans for polio after the besieged territory reported its first case of the disease in 25 years.
“We’re working with the Israeli government on that, and I believe that we’ll be able to move forward with a plan to do that in the coming weeks,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
“It is urgent. It is vital,” Blinken said.
However, that would require a pause in the fighting and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for two seven-day breaks in the war to vaccinate the territory’s more than 640,000 children.
Blinken, who did not say how the vaccination would take place, said he had a “detailed” discussion on the humanitarian situation in Gaza with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
“We very much share the concern about the possibility of its [polio’s] reemergence, and we’ve been working on a detailed plan to make sure that those who need to be vaccinated against it can get vaccinated,” Blinken said.
Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on Monday evening targeted a Hezbollah arms depot in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, two security sources said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, the sources added.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it targeted a weapons depot used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah militants in an air strike, killing at least 10 people including two children.
In July, Israeli strikes also targeted another depot storing ammunition belonging to the Iranian-backed group in the town of Adloun in southern Lebanon, three security sources told Reuters.
Israel’s military campaign has since levelled swathes of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing at least 40,000 people according to Palestinian health authorities.
