US SECRETARY of State Antony Blinken met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in turn today, urging the conclusion of a Gaza ceasefire.
Mr Blinken said it was a “decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.”
He said it was important that “no-one takes any steps that could derail this process … [that] there is no escalation, no provocations, no actions that [expand] the conflict to other places and to greater intensity.”
The US government has been criticised for continuing to supply weapons to Israel to allow it to continue its invasion, even as it publicly urges it to call a halt.
Israel is still attacking on multiple fronts, killing 10 in a bombing of southern Lebanon on Saturday. Its warplanes continued to fly low over Beirut today, as a drone, claimed by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, killed an Israeli soldier in the north.
Its troops expanded attacks in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, while the United Nations sounded the alarm over the accelerating expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, where Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir boasted that tractors were working “round the clock” to demolish Palestinian buildings.
Current ceasefire discussions centre on a plan that would see Hamas release the remaining Israeli hostages it abducted on October 7 last year, in return for Israel withdrawing troops from Gaza and releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners.
Sticking points include Israeli demands to maintain military control of the Gaza-Egypt border, and for a border within Gaza its soldiers would use to search Palestinians returning to their homes. Hamas says these points were introduced after it had agreed to previous conditions, in a deliberate bid by Mr Netanyahu to scupper a deal.
Iran, which has been warned against any attack on Israel by Western governments since the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, said it did not wish to do anything to disrupt a potential ceasefire, but added that there would be consequences if the UN security council was unwilling to put a stop to Israeli aggression.
