Blinken ‘hopeful’ of Gaza ceasefire deal

RIYADH: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is hopeful Hamas will accept an “extraordinarily generous” ceasefire offer to stop Israel’s devastating Gaza offensive in return for the release of hostages.

“Hamas must decide, and decide quickly, whether to accept the extraordinarily generous offer for a ceasefire. I am hopeful they would make the right decision, and we can make a fundamental change in the dynamics,” the US official told a World Economic Forum panel in Riyadh.

A high-level Egyptian delegation flew in to Israel for talks last Friday amid a new diplomatic push for a truce in the six-month hostilities and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militants.

The conflict in Gaza, which began following the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has resulted in the deaths of almost 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and reduced 75 percent of the besieged enclave into rubble according to authorities there.

“We are working with partners trying to bring the conflict to an end, trying to ensure it does not spread and all of it is a collective effort. The quickest way to bring the Gaza conflict to an end is to get to a ceasefire and the release of hostages,” Blinken said, as he thanked Egypt and Qatar for their instrumental role in pushing for a truce and the release of hostages.

Blinken also reiterated US opposition to an impending Israeli military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah in the absence of a plan to ensure civilians will not be harmed.

“We have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected,” Blinken said.

Israel has for weeks threatened to launch an all-out offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas’s remaining forces.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who spoke during a WEF panel a day earlier, said the US “was the only country capable” of preventing Israel’s long-feared invasion of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are currently living.

Only a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza Strip, and the “biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen,” Abbas said.

Blinken said there was a “need to be ready for a day-after plan for Gaza to include what is to be done about security, governance and administration and humanitarian and reconstruction needs.

“A lot of work has been done on that, more work needs to be done,” he said.

Blinken also said that the “single biggest rebuke to both Iran and Hamas would be Israel having normal relations with every country in the region and the realization of the Palestinian state.

“The US and Saudi Arabia have done intense work together over the past months to focus on the Saudi-Israeli normalization agreement. I think it is is potentially close to completion,” he said.

“But for the normalization to move forward … two things would be required: calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state.”

Blinken earlier joined the opening of a US-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting, where he told the region’s foreign ministers that the best way to ease the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza would be to negotiate a ceasefire agreement that would release hostages held by Hamas.

The top US diplomat met separately with Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan, minister of foreign affairs, where they reviewed ways to strengthen bilateral relations and joint cooperation in various fields, the Saudi Press Agency said.