TEL AVIV, May 1, 2024 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Hamas to accept a “very strong” ceasefire-for-hostages offer as he vowed to put a priority on families seeking to reunite with loved ones.
In rare scenes for the top US diplomat, who has faced furore at home and abroad over President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in its campaign against Hamas, Blinken was greeted outside his Tel Aviv hotel by Israelis waving US flags and chanting, “Thank you, Biden! Thank you, Blinken!”
Blinken, who also met privately with hostage families, told them that freeing the hostages seized by militants on October 7 was “at the heart of everything we’re trying to do”.
“There is a very strong proposal on the table right now. Hamas needs to say yes, and needs to get this done,” Blinken told the protesters, many of whom chanted for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the war.
“We will not rest until everyone — men, women, soldier, civilian, young, old — is back home,” he said.
Following a meeting with Blinken, Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid insisted that Netanyahu “doesn’t have any political excuse not to move to a deal for the release of the hostages”.
“He has a majority in the nation, he has a majority in the Knesset, and if needed, I’ll make sure he has a majority in the government,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Various members of Netanyahu’s coalition government, including those from the far-right, have criticised the negotiations, throwing doubt on the government’s unity.
– Ceasefire ‘now’ –
In Jerusalem Wednesday, Blinken spoke at length with Netanyahu, who despite calls for a ceasefire has been vowing to go ahead with an offensive in Rafah — the city in southern Gaza where around 1.5 million Palestinians have taken shelter — regardless of US opposition or the fate of hostage negotiations.
In that discussion, Blinken reiterated the US opposition to a Rafah incursion, a US official said.
Speaking earlier with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Blinken said the United States was “determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home — and to get it now”.
“And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken said.
Herzog told Blinken: “We yearn for the immediate return of the hostages. It is and should be the top priority of the international community.”
Hamas is set to respond to an offer in which Israel would temporarily halt its offensive in Gaza and free Palestinian prisoners in return for hostages seized on October 7.
During his visit, Blinken is also pressing efforts to increase aid into the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned of impending famine due to severe shortages of food.
He will later Wednesday make stops including in Ashdod, a port near Gaza that was recently reopened by Israel for aid.
“We also have to be focused on people who are suffering in this crossfire of Hamas’s making,” Blinken said to Herzog.
On Tuesday, Blinken saw off a Jordanian aid convoy that was heading to the newly reopened Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza.