Middle East crisis: Israel awaits Hamas response to ceasefire plan as Blinken returns to Middle East
Israel waited Monday for Hamas officials to respond to a proposal to pause fighting in the Gaza Strip and release the remaining hostages there, while Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken returned to the region to rally support for such a move. deal.
Hamas-affiliated broadcaster Al-Aqsa reported on Sunday that Hamas was still discussing the proposal a week after it was formulated. Leaders of the group had done that before indicated that significant gaps remained between the two sides, even as representatives of the United States, Egypt and Qatar sought common ground.
Mr Blinken, who was due to visit Saudi Arabia first, is too hoping to move the conversations forward on a series of interconnected agreements to end the war in Gaza, and an agreement on the release of hostages will be central to this.
Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser, told CBS's “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “the ball is in Hamas' court.”
An agreement that would release hostages, pause fighting and allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza is of “great” importance, he added.
“We will push for it relentlessly, as the President has done, including recently in conversations with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, the two countries that are our central mediators in this effort,” Mr. Sullivan said.
The October 7 Hamas-led attacks, in which Israeli officials said about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 others taken hostage, sparked a war with Israel and sparked a broader crisis in the Middle East. Israel has exchanged fire with members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia that controls part of Yemen has shot at ships sailing to and from the Suez Canal.
Other Iranian-backed militants have launched attacks on US bases in the region, including one recently that killed three US soldiers in Jordan.
The United States responded to the Houthi attacks with repeated strikes, including on Sunday, and to the attack in Jordan with a separate series of military strikes this weekend against Iranian forces and the militias they support in seven locations in Syria and Iraq. Top US national security officials said on Sunday that further retaliation against Iranian-backed militias was still planned.
But Mr. Sullivan said he believed these efforts were separate from talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire that has eluded both sides since a week-long pause in November.
“We believe that the steps we took on Friday and the steps we took against the Houthis last night are not related to the hostage negotiations,” he told NBC's “Meet the Press.” “And we believe that now, at this point, it is up to Hamas to come forward and respond to this serious proposal.”