On Wednesday top US diplomat Antony Blinken said that a truce and hostage release deal to end the Gaza war was still possible, wrapping up a Middle East tour as deadly fighting rocked the Palestinian territory.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, rained rockets on northern Israel, a day after an Israeli strike killed one of its senior commanders.
Blinken, said the United States would work with regional partners to close the deal. Late Tuesday Hamas submitted its response to mediators Qatar and Egypt, and Blinken said some of the proposed amendments are workable and some are not.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said it sought a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, demands rejected by Israel.
UN Security Council and Arab powers endorsed the three-stage plan which includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza’s internationally backed reconstruction.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said many of Hamas’s demands were unanticipated, while others differ more from what was outlined in the UN Security Council resolution.
Blinken said Israel was behind the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has far-right members strongly opposed to the deal, has yet to formally endorse it.
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