Blinken in Israel for high-stakes talks as Hamas sends 'positive' reply to hostage proposal

Following prior visits to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday arrived in Israel for high-stakes talks with top officials about a proposal for a sustained cessation in Gaza fighting in exchange for Hamas’ release of hostages held since October 7.

Blinken is expected to meet, as he has on his past visits to Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top officials in the Israeli war cabinet.

According to CNN, Blinken is expected to focus on pushing Israel toward a “humanitarian pause,” as the Biden administration calls it, as such a suspension of the fighting is central to the objectives the US is pushing for both the short- and longer-term.

Qatar’s prime minister has stated that Hamas responded “positively” to the proposal, although specific details remain limited. “The reply includes some comments, but in general it is positive,” AFP quoted Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani as saying after meeting Blinken in Doha. According to CNN, citing Israeli authorities, Blinken said the United States is reviewing Hamas’ response, as is Israel’s foreign intelligence service and the matter will be taken up for discussion on Wednesday. Hamas’ long-awaited counteroffer to a hostage and truce framework is “reasonable,” CNN quoted a source familiar with the discussions as saying, adding, it does not include two of its most prominent and public demands: that Israeli soldiers leave Gaza or for a deal to end the war. Blinken also said there was still “a lot of work to be done” but that he believed “that an agreement is possible and indeed essential”. Israel’s spy agency Mossad also received the Hamas response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, and “its details are being thoroughly evaluated”. Netanyahu, who has yet to comment directly on the response, said on Tuesday: “We are on the way to the total victory and we will not stop.” Pressure for a ceasefire has mounted as Israeli forces push towards the town of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, where more than half the besieged territory’s population has taken shelter. “To be clear, intensified hostilities in Rafah in this situation could lead to large-scale loss of civilian lives, and we must do everything possible within our power to avoid that,” AFP quoted  Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office OCHA, as saying. The war started with Hamas’s unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also seized around 250 hostages, with Israel saying 132 remain in Gaza. Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel has launched air strikes and a land offensive that have killed at least 27,585 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. With inputs from agencies