The world is waiting for Hamas leaders’ response, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Tuesday, a day after the U.N. Security Council approved a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal.
Speaking to reporters in Tel Aviv, Blinken placed the blame squarely on Hamas’ Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, questioning whether the group was acting in the best interests of the Palestinians by accepting the deal, which he said would at the very least bring a pause in fighting and allow more humanitarian aid to flow into the Gaza Strip.
Alternatively, he said, Hamas may be “watching one man, Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding out underground in the Gaza Strip,” while “the people he claims to represent continue to suffer in a crossfire of their own making.”
The top U.S. diplomat, on his eighth wartime visit to Israel, sought to focus the nation’s attention on Sinwar, saying the fate of the U.S.-backed ceasefire plan “really rests on one person at this point.”But he also met with Israeli leaders who have not publicly supported the proposal — which Biden has described as an Israeli proposal — and have said they would abide by the agreement even if Hamas accepted it.
After speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Blinken said he had received a clear assurance that he would support the proposal, despite Netanyahu having cast doubts last week by calling the idea of permanent cease-fire negotiations, which Hamas says are essential, “unfeasible.”
With experts questioning whether that goal can be achieved, Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he will not accept any deal to end the war before Hamas’ military and governance are destroyed.
The Security Council resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations towards a permanent end to the fighting, with a temporary extension if the talks take longer than six weeks — a move that would seemingly pave the way for a longer pause in the fighting but which some Israeli leaders have been reluctant to accept.
“Agreeing to the proposal is a commitment to seek a lasting ceasefire,” Blinken stressed, adding, “But it has to be negotiated.”
The first phase of the three-phase agreement calls for an immediate ceasefire, as well as the release of all hostages being held in Gaza, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip in exchange for putting more Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
The second phase calls for a permanent ceasefire agreed upon by both sides, while the third phase would involve a multi-year reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip and the return of the bodies of hostages who died.
Blinken spoke on the patio of a waterfront hotel in Tel Aviv as several relatives of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, whom he had met briefly earlier, looked on, some holding signs bearing photos of their loved ones and reading “Bring them home.”
Blinken said Monday’s unanimous Security Council vote was a sign that Hamas would be isolated if it did not agree to the draft agreement. The resolution “made it as clear as possible that this is what the world wants,” Blinken said.
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UN Security Council endorses Gaza ceasefire resolution
Fourteen of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, with Russia abstaining, voted in favour of adopting a proposal calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which neither Israel nor Hamas have formally accepted.
“With 14 votes in favor, 0 against, and 1 abstention, the resolution was adopted as Resolution 2735,” he said. “Colleagues, a ceasefire agreement will pave the way for a lasting cessation of hostilities and a better future for all. As President Biden recently acknowledged, the Palestinian people have endured true hell in this war started by Hamas. We have a chance to forge a different path.”
Hamas said in a statement on Monday that it “welcomes the contents of the Security Council resolution which confirms a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, complete withdrawal, prisoner exchange, reconstruction, return of displaced persons to their homes, rejection of any demographic change or reduction in the area of the Gaza Strip, and the provision of necessary assistance to the population of the Gaza Strip.”
Blinken called the statement a “sign of hope,” but added that what was important was “the word of the Hamas leadership in Gaza, namely Sinwar.”
Blinken spoke to reporters before departing for Amman, Jordan, for a meeting on humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. He also met Tuesday morning with Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, whose centrist party withdrew from Israel’s emergency wartime government on Sunday in protest at Netanyahu’s handling of the war.
