U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks on a plane during a visit to Israel en route to Jordan, in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 3, 2023, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Israel on Sunday as part of Washington’s intensified diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that would end the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas.
The top U.S. diplomat is visiting the region for the tenth time since the war broke out in October, days after the United States proposed bridging proposals that the United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt believe will narrow the differences between the warring sides.
U.S. officials expressed renewed optimism about completing the deal but warned there was still work to be done.
“What we’re doing is closing the gaps that remain and closing them in a way that we believe is essentially an agreement that is now ready to be completed, implemented and moved forward,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Friday. .
In Israel, Blinken is expected to meet with the Israeli prime minister and other senior officials.
The negotiations are taking place under the shadow of concerns about escalating tensions in the region. Iran threatened retaliation against Israel after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.
Iranians hold a portrait of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during a funeral procession in Tehran ahead of his funeral in Qatar on August 1, 2024. Iran held a funeral procession for Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and called for revenge after he was killed in an attack in Tehran blamed on Israel.
– |AFP|Getty Images
Washington has repeatedly warned Iran not to take any retaliatory action against Israel. The U.S. official said such behavior could have “catastrophic” consequences, especially for Iran.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy supported ongoing ceasefire talks and urged all parties to avoid any “escalatory action”.
Negotiations on how to implement the deal are expected to continue early next week before senior officials reconvene in Cairo with the aim of reaching a deal later this week.
Israel’s negotiating team expressed “cautious optimism” on Saturday about the possibility of moving forward with a deal, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Saturday.
Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told Al Jazeera on Saturday that Israel had added conditions to ceasefire talks and accused Netanyahu of using them to hinder ceasefire talks.
Despite growing hopes for a ceasefire, the war continues. An Israeli attack on the Gaza town of Zaveda on Saturday killed at least 17 Palestinians and injured dozens more, health officials said, prompting new evacuation orders, citing Hamas rockets nearby.
Palestinians carrying belongings are on their way to find a safe zone after the Israeli army issued a new evacuation order to the east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on August 16, 2024.
Ashraf Amra | Anadolu | Getty Images
The latest round of the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict began on October 7, when Hamas militants broke into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.
According to the Palestinian health authority, Israel’s subsequent military operation has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Israel says it has eliminated 17,000 Hamas militants.
