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US Secretary of State Blinken urges Middle East leaders to press Hamas to accept Gaza ceasefire
- Hamas was the only outlier in not accepting the proposal for a three-phase deal, Blinken said, to which he said Israel had agreed
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Arab leaders to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal outlined 10 days ago by US President Joe Biden to end the eight month-long war in Gaza.
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Blinken is on his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, triggering the bloodiest episode in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The trip comes as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire deal with Israel and ensure the war does not expand into Lebanon.
Blinken said Hamas was the only outlier in not accepting the proposal for a three-phase deal involving the release of hostages and talks towards an end to fighting, to which he said Israel had agreed.
Hamas said in May it had agreed to a deal for a ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoners swap, but an Israeli official said at the time the deal was not acceptable to Israel because terms had been “softened”.
“My message to governments throughout the region, to people throughout the region, is if you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes,” Blinken told reporters before departing Egypt, where he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
A senior Hamas official said Blinken’s Gaza ceasefire comments were “biased to Israel”.
Blinken arrived in Israel on Monday evening, where he updated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on “ongoing diplomatic efforts to plan for the post-conflict period”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a readout of the meeting.
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