Blinken says Israel has agreed to US proposal to close remaining gaps on ceasefire deal and calls on Hamas to do the same

By Jennifer Hansler, Alex Marquardt and Michael Conte, CNN, Aug 20: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps in ceasefire negotiations and the next step is for Hamas to accept ahead of further negotiations expected to take place later this week.

“The next important statement is for Hamas to say yes, and then, in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together to work on clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Blinken said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.

Despite the claims of Netanyahu’s agreement to the bridging proposal, there are still significant challenges before a deal can actually be reached. Not only has Hamas not agreed to the proposal but negotiators are still working on specific details on how an agreement would be implemented. They are also working to establish “clear understandings on how the different parties are going to make good on their commitments,” the top US diplomat said.

Ahead of his meetings with Israeli officials Monday, Blinken said the push to finalize a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza has reached a “decisive moment,” as he visited Israel before going on to Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday.

This is “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,” Blinken said in remarks alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv before the two met.

“It is time for everyone to get to yes, and to not look for any excuses to say no,” Blinken said. “It is time for it to get done. It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process.”

At his press conference, Blinken underscored the urgency of the moment, noting that “intervening events come along that may make things even more difficult, if not impossible.”

“We’ve experienced that throughout this process, so there’s the fierce urgency of now,” he said.

The announcement by Blinken and the Israeli prime minister’s office that Israel had agreed to the bridging proposal followed a three-hour meeting between the top US diplomat and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem earlier Monday. Both sides described the meeting as constructive. Netanyahu committed to sending senior negotiators to “complete this process” in either Qatar or Egypt, Blinken said.

It is unclear what exactly is in the “bridging proposal.” It was put forward last week by the US, with the support of Qatar and Egypt, following two days of high-stakes talks in Doha. The mediators have been stepping up efforts as the Middle East braces for a possible Iranian attack on Israel, and after the death toll since October in Gaza reportedly reached 40,000 people — a bleak figure that underscores 10 months of suffering, malnutrition and despair in the Palestinian enclave during Israel’s war with Hamas.

On Sunday evening, Hamas and Netanyahu traded accusations suggesting that a deal may still be far off. Hamas suggested it had rejected the proposal.

Hamas said the latest proposal didn’t include a permanent ceasefire and introduced new conditions on the exchange of prisoners, among other issues.

The group blamed Netanyahu for “obstructing” a deal from being reached and reiterated its desire to enact a three-phase proposal presented by US President Joe Biden, which would include the release of hostages from Gaza, a “full and complete ceasefire,” and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. It called on mediators to “compel the occupation to implement” that plan.

Netanyahu shot back, saying Israel will not be “giving in to Hamas’s demand” to end the war in Gaza as a condition of a deal.

“The Prime Minister has strongly insisted on this fundamental demand, which is vital to achieving the goals of the war, and Hamas changed its position,” a statement from his office said Sunday. “The Prime Minister will continue to work on advancing a deal that will maximize the number of living hostages and which will enable the achieving of all of the war objectives.”

At his news conference Monday, Blinken said he could not “speculate on exactly what Hamas’s intentions are,” but expected to learn more in his conversations with Egyptian and Qatari officials on Tuesday.

“We’ve seen public statements, but we’ve seen public statements before that don’t fully reflect where Hamas is,” he said.

Other key sticking points in talks include Israel’s insistence on controlling the border between Gaza and Egypt, having a veto over which Palestinian prisoners are released and preventing the movement of armed men from southern Gaza to the north.

Death toll continues to rise

As the diplomatic efforts continue, the death toll in Gaza continues to rise.

At least 15 people were killed in two separate Israeli strikes on Gaza Monday, including seven former bodyguards of the late Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told CNN.

The strike on the Al-Shati refugee camp northwest of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip killed nine people, including the bodyguards, according to Basal.

The second strike hit an area behind the Austrian Towers - residential buildings west of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, killing at least six people and injuring 15 others, Basal said.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on both incidents for comment.

Separately, an Israeli soldier was killed in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF announced in a short statement Monday.

IDF said earlier Monday that its troops “expanded the operation in the Gaza Strip to the Khan Yunis area and the outskirts of Deir al-Balah,” in a statement.

“The troops are eliminating terrorists, destroying combat compounds above and below ground,” the statement added.

A ‘fraught moment’ for Israel

Speaking alongside Herzog on Monday, Blinken acknowledged it is a “fraught moment” for Israel over concerns about the possibility of attacks from Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, and said the US has “taken decisive actions… to deter any attacks and if necessary to defend against any attacks.”

“We’re working to make sure that there is no escalation, 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,” he said.

As Blinken arrived in Israel on Sunday, there was an explosion in Tel Aviv that Israeli officials declared to be a terror attack. Hamas’ armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the explosion.

In the evening, an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed seven members of the same family, medical officials said. Six children and their mother were killed in the strike on a home in Deir al-Balah, according to the Al-Aqsa hospital. The children’s father was injured, a hospital spokesperson said.

It comes just a day after an Israeli strike killed at least 15 people, all from the same family, in the al-Zawayda area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Nine children were among those killed, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.

In a statement Sunday, the Israeli military said forces continue to operate in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Adding to Gazans’ woes, doctors last week detected the first case of polio in the enclave in 25 years.