Blinken: This is maybe the last opportunity to return Gaza hostages

This could be the last possible moment to return the remaining 115 hostages in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Israel on Monday morning as he urged both Israel and Hamas not to thwart a deal.

“This is a decisive moment,” Blinken said as he met with President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

It’s “probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security. 

“I'm here as part of an intensive diplomatic effort on President Biden's instructions to try to get this agreement to the line, and ultimately over the line,” Blinken said in advance of an anticipated summit in Cairo to try to finalize a deal.

A senior US official described the Cairo meeting as “end game” talks.

Qatar and Egypt have been the main mediators for a deal, with the support of the United States.

CIA Director William Burns held high-level talks in Doha on Thursday and Friday, with the participation of a high-level Israeli delegation led by Mossad Chief David Barnea. 

Professional Israel teams are in Doha and Cairo this week for lower-level talks. 

Hamas response

Last week, the US put forward what it described as a “bridging proposal” in Doha, which said it closed the gaps between Israel and Hamas with regard to a May 31 deal US President Joe Biden unveiled at the White House.

Hamas and Israel both accepted that deal in principle but have argued about the details of how it would be executed.

On Sunday night Hamas rejected the bridging proposal and Prime Minister Benjamin continued to press for clarifications to the deal, which the terror group has also rejected. 

Blinken told Herzog on Monday morning, “It’s time for it [the hostage deal] to get done. It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process. 

“So we’re looking to make sure that there is no escalation, that there are no provocations, that there are no actions that in any way could move us away from getting this deal over the line, or for that matter, escalating the conflict to other places and to greater intensity,” Blinken stated.

Herzog blamed the absence of a deal on “a refusal of Hamas to move forward.” He stressed that “we are simply still very hopeful that we can move forward in the negotiations that are held by the mediators. And I want to thank the United States, Egypt, and Qatar for their efforts on behalf of this noble cause. 

“There is no greater humanitarian objective, and there's no greater humanitarian cause than bringing back our hostages home as they should have returned long ago. 

“We want to see them back home as soon as possible. There's no greater prayer, and there's no greater hope and no greater effort to try everything possible to bring them back home,” he stated.

“So let's try our best, and all our efforts to bring them back home, alongside protecting Israeli security interests,” Herzog said.

In an interview with Al Jazeera over the weekend, Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan explained that it had accepted the deal, but that Israel has since made changes to the document, which it rejected.

At issue has been the question of a permanent versus a temporary ceasefire to the Gaza war and the Hamas demand for a full IDF withdrawal from the enclave.

Israel has insisted that the IDF must remain in two critical security corridors in Gaza, Philadelphi and Netzarim.