Israel and Hamas at War, Day 317 | Blinken in Israel, Netanyahu and Hamas Blame Each Other for Lack of Deal

(Tel Aviv) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas on Sunday blamed each other for the failure of mediators to reach an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza, at the start of a visit to Israel by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

On the eve of his meeting Monday morning with Mr. Blinken, Mr. Netanyahu called for “directing pressure on Hamas” and “not towards the Israeli government,” denouncing a “stubborn refusal” by the Palestinian Islamist movement to conclude an agreement, after two days of negotiations in Doha between the Israeli side and the American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

“We hold Benjamin Netanyahu fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators and obstructing an agreement, and for the lives of the hostages,” Hamas said in a statement.

Mr. Blinken’s visit, his ninth to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, aims to convince “all parties” to drive an agreement “to the finish line,” a U.S. representative accompanying him said after his arrival in Tel Aviv.

US President Joe Biden said Sunday evening that a truce in Gaza was “still possible” and assured that the United States was “not giving up” on its efforts, during a brief exchange with the press.

The United States has stepped up efforts to end more than a decade of devastating conflict, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7, after threats of attack by Iran and its allies against Israel raised fears of a regional conflagration.

Blinken is also scheduled to meet with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday before heading to Cairo on Tuesday, where mediators are expected to resume talks next week.

The United States, which has just approved a $20 billion arms sale to its Israeli ally, submitted a new compromise proposal during talks in Doha on Friday.

“Refusal of a total withdrawal” from Gaza

“There are things we can be flexible on and things we cannot be flexible on,” said Netanyahu, who is under increasing pressure internationally and at home to end the war in Gaza.

Hamas reaffirmed its rejection of the new proposal, saying it “meets the conditions set by Netanyahu, in particular his refusal of a permanent ceasefire and a total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”

The movement, which did not participate in the negotiations in Qatar, denounces in particular the Israeli “insistence” in maintaining troops on the Gaza border with Egypt and “new conditions on the file” of Palestinian prisoners likely to be exchanged for hostages held in Gaza.

The Palestinian movement is sticking to the plan announced at the end of May by US President Joe Biden as is, and is calling on mediators to “force the occupation to implement what has been agreed.”

The plan provides for a six-week truce in the first phase, accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages abducted on October 7, and in its second phase, a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly said he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007 and is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

“The tanks are getting closer”

For Washington, a ceasefire would help prevent an attack by Iran and its allies against Israel, after their threats to retaliate for the assassination, attributed to Israel, of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, and that of the military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Fouad Shokr, killed the day before in an Israeli strike near Beirut.

The Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

Of the 251 people abducted that day, 111 are still being held in Gaza, including 39 declared dead by the army.

The Israeli offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip has left at least 40,099 dead, according to Hamas’s health ministry, which did not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed.

It has caused a humanitarian disaster in the devastated Palestinian territory, which the UN says is threatened with famine. Almost all of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced.

Alongside diplomatic efforts, the Israeli army is maintaining military pressure on Hamas in Gaza and continuing its bombings and ground offensive there.

On Sunday, the Civil Defense in Gaza reported 11 deaths in strikes in Jabalia (north) and Deir al-Balah (center).

“Are these women and children part of the resistance?” asks Ahmed Abou Kheir, a witness to a bombing that killed a mother and her six children in their apartment in Deir al-Balah.

AFPTV saw Palestinians fleeing by all means from a makeshift camp in the Khan Younis region after Israeli tanks took up positions nearby.

“The tanks are getting closer to us, it scares us a lot, we really don’t know where to go,” says Lina Saleha, a 44-year-old woman.

In the occupied West Bank, where the war in Gaza has intensified violence, an Israeli security guard was killed Sunday by a “terrorist”, according to the army, in a Jewish settlement near a Palestinian village where a raid by settlers had left one dead.

“More than 10,000 Palestinians have been arrested since the start of the war” in this occupied Palestinian territory, according to the Palestinian NGO Prisoners’ Club.