Arriving in Qatar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is seeking agreement on a truce in Gaza and a deal for the release of hostages, which is now in jeopardy after a reaction from Hamas to the most recent offers.
It was reported that Mr. Blinken stayed up late analyzing the document that Hamas sent to Qatar and Egypt, the mediators.
Although the Palestinian armed organization said that it was prepared to "deal positively" with the process, it emphasized that Israel must consent to an ongoing truce.
Although an unnamed Israeli official claimed that Hamas's statement amounted to a rejection, the Israeli government has not responded.
As part of the traveling press pool, the BBC is accompanying Mr. Blinken to Doha, where he is meeting with leaders of Qatar in an effort to forward the idea.
The gorgeous Gulf locale belies the feeling of regional catastrophe he is trying to resolve at breakneck speed with a diplomatic visit.
According to Mr. Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his support for the ceasefire plan on Tuesday, and the only group impeding progress is Hamas.
When he presented the idea 12 days ago, US President Joe Biden said that Israel had proposed it, although Mr. Netanyahu has not yet formally supported it.
In a short statement released on Tuesday night, Hamas acknowledged that it has responded officially to the most recent ceasefire proposal, which has received widespread international backing and was approved by the UN Security Council on Monday.
This reaffirmed the call for the total departure of Israeli soldiers from Palestinian land and what Hamas described as "a complete halt of the ongoing aggression against Gaza."
Izzat al-Rishq, a Hamas representative, described the reaction as "responsible, serious and positive" and claimed it created "a wide pathway" for a deal. The office of the Israeli prime minister refrained from providing an official response.
However, an unidentified Israeli source released a statement claiming that Hamas had "rejected the proposal for a hostage release that was presented by President Biden" and "changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters."
The mediators are now expected to respond more critically after reviewing the plan and determining how much the Hamas changes have changed.
The top Biden administration officials, Barbara Leaf and Derek Chollet, were sent by Mr. Blinken from the US delegation's hotel in Amman, Jordan, to pick up the paper from Egyptian intelligence director Abbas Kamel, who was also staying in the city, according to the US State Department source. In a joint statement, Egypt and Qatar said they will "co-ordinate with the parties concerned regarding the next steps" after reviewing Hamas's answer. Additionally, they promised to keep working with the US in mediation "until an agreement is reached."
On October 7, an unprecedented assault on southern Israel resulted in roughly 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages. In response, the Israeli military started a battle in Gaza to defeat Hamas.
Since then, more than 37,160 Palestinians have died in Gaza, according to the health ministry operated by Hamas in the region.
As part of an agreement reached in November, 240 Palestinian inmates held in Israeli prisons and the release of 105 hostages by Hamas were exchanged for a week-long truce. According to Israel, 116 captives are still being detained, 41 of them are thought to be dead. According to Mr. Biden, there were three stages to the new plan.
In the first, Israel would free an unspecified number of Palestinian detainees in return for Hamas releasing certain captives, notably women, the elderly, and the ill or injured, during a six-week truce.
In a second phase, all captives still alive would be freed, and Israeli soldiers would leave Gaza as part of a "permanent cessation of hostilities," but the latter would still need to be discussed further.
The third phase would see the repatriation of any deceased hostages and the start of a comprehensive rehabilitation plan for Gaza.
Mr. Blinken said that an immediate ceasefire was the only option to handle the humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territories during a speech at a Gaza relief conference in Jordan on Tuesday afternoon.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu reaffirmed his support and his commitment to seeing this proposal through to the end when we met yesterday in Israel." "Today, Hamas is the only thing standing in the way of this deal happening," he said.
"So, get Hamas to accept the deal is my main and first message to every government, multilateral institution, and humanitarian organization that wants to relieve the immense suffering in Gaza."
Hamas "should not require much convincing," he said, as the agreement was "nearly identical" to what the organization had put out on May 6.
Israel's leadership is still very skeptical of the White House's efforts to encourage the parties to move toward a deal.
Seeing the US-backed plan as a capitulation to Hamas, far-right ministers are urging Mr. Netanyahu to reject Washington's diplomacy and have threatened to leave his ruling coalition and bring it to an end if it moves ahead.
Although he has confirmed that his war cabinet approved the proposal, the prime minister has not said categorically that he supports it.
The whole Israeli proposal—which is supposedly longer than Mr. Biden's summary—has not been released, and it is unclear whether it differs from what the president said. Hamas received it a few days before to Mr. Biden's address.
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