By Daphne Psaledakis and Nidal al-Mughrabi
TEL AVIV/CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that a statement of support from Hamas for a U.N. resolution supporting a proposed ceasefire in the Gaza war was a “hopeful sign” was, although the leadership of the militant group, the enclave was vital.
Talks on plans for Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas ends will continue Tuesday afternoon and in the coming days, Blinken said in Jerusalem after talks with Israeli leaders. “It is imperative that we have these plans in place.”
Blinken met with Israeli officials on Tuesday in a joint effort to end the eight-month-old war, a day after President Joe Biden’s ceasefire proposal was approved by the UN Security Council.
Ahead of Blinken’s trip, Israel and Hamas both reiterated hardline positions that have undermined previous mediation to end the fighting, while Israel continued attacks in central and southern Gaza, some of the bloodiest of the war.
However, on Tuesday, Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official based outside Gaza, said it accepted the ceasefire resolution and was ready to negotiate the details, adding that it was up to Washington to ensure Israel’s compliance.
He said Hamas accepted the formula that established the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
“The US government faces a real test to fulfill its obligations by forcing the occupation to immediately end the war in an implementation of the UN Security Council resolution,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Blinken said Hamas’ statement was “a hopeful sign,” but a definitive word was still needed from the Hamas leadership in Gaza. “That’s what counts, and that’s what we don’t have yet.”
Israel has said it will only agree to temporary pauses in the war until Hamas is defeated, while Hamas has countered that it will not accept a deal that does not guarantee the war will end.
Blinken also said in a call with reporters that his talks also covered day-after plans for Gaza, including security, governance and rebuilding the devastated enclave.
“We have done that in consultation with many partners across the region. Those conversations will continue… it is imperative that we have these plans in place,” he said.
FEARS OF A BIG ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH WAR
During his visit, his eighth to the Middle East since war broke out between Israel and Hamas last October, Blinken also hoped to counter rising violence between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah after both signaled readiness for a major spillover conflict.
Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, popular centrist ex-military chief Benny Gantz, who quit the hard right-dominated government on Sunday after failing to devise a plan to end the war, and opposition leader Yair Lapid.
The US State Department said Blinken discussed Biden’s ceasefire proposal with Gantz and reiterated that it would advance Israel’s security interests, bring hostages home and improve chances of restoring calm along Israel’s border with Lebanon.
Biden’s proposal calls for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians being jailed in Israel in phases, eventually leading to a definitive end to the war.
The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest arms supplier, although the country has become increasingly critical of the high number of civilian casualties, massive destruction and humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s Gaza war and has increasingly pushed for an end to it.
The war in Gaza raged on Tuesday as Israeli forces stepped up attacks on the southern city of Rafah, a day after four soldiers were killed in an ambush claimed by Hamas.
Israeli Army Radio said the soldiers were killed in an explosion in a building in Rafah’s Shaboura neighborhood. Hamas said it ambushed troops by detonating explosives previously placed in the building.
LONG-TERM SEARCH FOR A CITY PART
The war between Israel and Gaza began when Hamas-led Palestinian Islamist militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s air and ground attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip have killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry said, and reduced most of the small besieged enclave to wasteland, where malnutrition is widespread.
Biden has repeatedly stated that the ceasefire was close in recent months, but there has been only one weeklong ceasefire, in November, when more than 100 hostages were released in exchange for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons .
Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas on Saturday during a commando raid on a busy urban refugee camp in central Gaza, during which 274 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombardments, according to Gaza health authorities.
According to Israeli figures, there are still more than a hundred hostages in the coastal enclave, including at least forty who have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.
Protesters gathered outside the hotel where Blinken was staying in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and called for an immediate deal to bring the hostages home.
“We trust you, Blinken, close the deal,” they chanted as he held meetings at the hotel. “Anyway, now for a hostage deal.”
Blinken will travel to Jordan later on Tuesday for a conference on the humanitarian response to Gaza. On Monday, he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo before heading to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Blinken stressed to Netanyahu the importance of a post-war plan for Gaza and the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Tel Aviv and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
