US continuing to push for Gaza ceasefire, Blinken says

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, meets with representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the Palestinian Authority in Cairo, Egypt, March 21, 2024. [Reuters] The United States is still pushing for a cease-fire deal between Israel and the militant group Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday at a press conference in Cairo ahead of a high-stakes trip to Israel. "There's a clear consensus around a number of shared priorities," Blinken said about his discussions in the Egyptian capital. "First: the need for an immediate sustained cease-fire, with release of hostages." A cease-fire would create space for more humanitarian aid, he added. Blinken was in Egypt for talks Thursday focused on efforts to secure a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, gain release of hostages held in Gaza, and move more humanitarian aid into Gaza to help Palestinian civilians badly in need of assistance. Negotiators are continuing to work on a cease-fire agreement, Blinken said. "The gaps are narrowing, and we're continuing to push for an agreement in Doha. There's still difficult work to get there, but I continue to believe it's possible," Blinken said at the press conference. "We've closed the gaps, but there are still gaps. So, I can't put a timeline on it. I can just say that we're committed to doing everything possible to reaching an agreement," he said. The main point of contention in negotiations has been that Hamas says it will release the remaining hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war, whereas Israel says it will consider only a temporary pause. While in Cairo, the State Department said Blinken discussed a potential halt in fighting lasting at least six weeks, as well as the release of all remaining hostages, as he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The top U.S. diplomat also met with representatives from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Multiple countries have been involved in weeks of talks trying to come up with a proposal acceptable to both Israel and the Hamas militant group. Blinken will update Israeli leaders about the latest developments when he travels to Israel for talks on Friday. In Israel, Blinken will "discuss the need to ensure the defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah, in a way that protects the civilian population, does not hinder the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and advances Israel's overall security," according to a statement from the U.S. State Department. The U.S. has raised opposition to Israel's plan to carry out a ground offensive in Rafah, located along the Gaza-Egypt border, which Israel says is necessary to achieve its goal of defeating Hamas and ensuring the U.S. designated terror group cannot carry out another attack like the October 7 assault on Israel. More than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, many of them after fleeing other parts of Gaza to try to find safety amid the war. Aside from the number of people killed in the war - 1,200 in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and nearly 32,000 in Israel's subsequent counteroffensive in Gaza - the delivery of humanitarian aid into the war zone to help famished Palestinians has become one of the most contentious points of conflict between Israel and its Western allies. The United States has conducted several rounds of air drops of aid into Gaza, and efforts are in progress to make deliveries by sea. International aid organizations have highlighted the difficulty of getting aid into Gaza through limited ground crossings and a lack of access to many areas of Gaza due to the ongoing violence and the devastation left behind by the war. Blinken began his visit to the region in Saudi Arabia, where he met Wednesday with Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. Blinken and his Saudi counterpart "discussed the urgent need to protect all civilians in Gaza and immediately increase humanitarian assistance to those in need," the State Department said. The Saudis announced a $40 million donation to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees to support its "humanitarian relief efforts in the Gaza Strip." In addition, a U.S. official reported that Blinken made significant progress in talks with Saudi officials about their possible normalization of relations with Israel, with only a handful of issues remaining to be resolved in a deal that also envisions agreement on a Saudi-U.S. security pact. U.S. President Joe Biden had initiated discussions about Israeli-Saudi recognition of each other before the October Hamas attack. But now, any diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia would likely be a key part of a broader Middle East peace pact at the end of the war. Washington is pushing for approval of a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains opposed to an independent Palestinian state. The fighting in Gaza continued Thursday, with Israel saying it was conducting airstrikes and ground operations in the area near the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The Israeli military said its forces killed more than 50 militants during the past day. Fighting was also ongoing in central Gaza and in the Khan Younis area in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

US continuing to push for Gaza ceasefire, Blinken says

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