Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday that he will continue to urgently push for a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip despite a counterproposal from Hamas that he said includes no acceptable requests.
After more than eight months of war in Gaza, the proposed ceasefire agreement follows a framework made public last month by President Biden and has the endorsement of the United Nations Security Council. But Israel and Hamas still appear far from reaching an agreement.
“In the next few days, we will be moving forward on an urgent basis,” Mr. Blinken said, “to try and close this deal.”
Speaking at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, with Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who serves as Qatar’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Blinken said that “a deal is on the table that is very similar” to one Posted by Hamas on May 6.
But Hamas’s response, he said, which was received by Egyptian and Qatari mediators and passed on to American officials on Tuesday, demands “more than the positions it has previously taken and accepted.”
“Some of the changes are workable, some are not,” Mr. Blinken said. He declined to disclose details about the Hamas counter-proposal but suggested that the group’s changing demands called into question the sincerity of its negotiators. At one point, he said, “you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not.”
Two senior members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps who were briefed on the details of Hamas’s response said Wednesday that Hamas is demanding that Russia, China and Turkey serve as guarantors and signatories to a ceasefire agreement. shoot. Members of the Revolutionary Guard also said that Hamas told Qatari and Turkish officials that it did not trust the United States as a mediator because of the role that US intelligence played in helping the Israelis in the operation to free the four hostages. last weekend.
While Mr. Biden has said that the plan was made by Israel, the Israeli government has yet to publicly acknowledge it, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that he will not stop the war until he achieves his oft-stated goal of destroy the governance and rule of Hamas. military ability.
The proposed agreement calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and then, after the release of some Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, talks that could lead to a longer or even permanent cease-fire, a Israeli withdrawal and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators between Israel and Hamas, not communicating directly with each other.
Mr. Blinken said the United States will present proposals “in the coming weeks” that it has developed with regional partners to address the governance, security and reconstruction of Gaza. He spoke on the last stop of a three-day tour of the Middle East, his eighth trip to the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
While leaving Mr. Blinken in the region, tensions are rising on Israel’s northern border. On Wednesday, Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed Lebanese militia and political movement, launched 215 rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Tuesday that killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
The commander, Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, is among the highest-ranking Hezbollah members killed since Hezbollah carried out cross-border attacks in support of Hamas after the attacks. -its attack on October 7 that sparked the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah claimed the attacks on a range of military bases, including at Mount Meron, an area home to a military radar station about five miles south of the border. Hezbollah also claimed to have struck an arms factory owned by Plasan, a manufacturer of armored vehicles used by the Israeli military.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from Hezbollah’s rocket barrages, the Israeli military said.
Hezbollah rocket attacks have already forced thousands of Israelis to flee border areas, and Israeli officials have threatened to pursue decisive military action in response to any serious attacks. The militia, for its part, has vowed to continue fighting, raising fresh concerns that months of low-level conflict could escalate into a larger war on Israel’s northern border.
Speaking at Mr. Abdallah’s funeral in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, vowed that the group would redouble its attacks against Israel.
“If the enemy’s message is to withdraw from our position in support of the oppressed in Gaza, he should know that our answer is final,” said Mr. Safieddine. “We will increase the intensity, quantity and quality of our operations.”
In response to the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanon border, Mr. Blinken said he believed neither side would face a larger war. He called it “safe to say that absolutely nothing is working to start a war, or have an escalation,” and that “there is a strong preference for a diplomatic solution.”
The best way to calm tensions on Lebanon’s border with Israel, he said, was a cease-fire in Gaza, which he said would “take enormous pressure off the system” and remove Hezbollah’s claimed justification for the attack. attack on Israel.
Reporting was contributed by Farnaz Fassihi, Aaron Boxerman, Adam Rasgon and Abu Bakr Bashir.
