Top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Sunday seeking a Gaza ceasefire deal that could help avert a wider war, while a senior Hamas official dismissed “American diktats” in negotiations.
Making his ninth trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war began with Palestinian militants’ October 7 attack, the secretary of state is due to meet Israeli leaders before truce talks resume in Cairo.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators say negotiations to clinch a ceasefire in the more than 10-month-old war were making progress, and US President Joe Biden said “we are closer than we have ever been”.
However Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri undercut the cautious optimism, saying that signs of progress after two days of talks in Doha were “an illusion”.
Gazans were forced to move again after the Israeli military issued fresh evacuation orders.
But the stakes have risen since the late July killings in quick succession of Iran-backed militant leaders, including Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, and as the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip has deepened with a feared polio outbreak.
After mediators announced they had put forward a “bridging proposal” to close remaining gaps between the warring sides, Hamas said it rejected “new conditions” from Israel and called for a plan outlined by Biden in late May to be implemented.
Talks are due to resume in the Egyptian capital in the coming days.
Before Blinken departed on Saturday night for Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called for “heavy pressure” on Hamas to reach a breakthrough.
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