US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Israel as Gaza truce efforts set to resume | Israeli-Palestinian conflict news

The United States, Qatar and Egypt are mediating a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal as the death toll in Gaza rises to more than 40,000.

The top US diplomat is visiting Israel as part of Washington's efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza, in which more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged enclave since last October.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to arrive in Israel on Sunday, days after the United States presented proposals that it and mediators from Qatar and Egypt said would bridge differences between Israel and Hamas. Truce talks are expected to resume in Cairo in the coming days after two days of negotiations in Doha this week.

The mediators said they had presented a tentative ceasefire proposal to both sides and that negotiations were making progress, but they also warned that more work remained to be done.

In Israel, Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.

The Israeli negotiating team expressed cautious optimism on Saturday that a deal could be advanced, according to a statement from Netanyahu's office.

However, Hamas has called for the implementation of the ceasefire plan presented by Biden in late May, rather than something that introduces new conditions from Israel.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu remains the main obstacle to a ceasefire and an exchange deal for remaining Palestinian captives and prisoners.

“From day one we said we would not accept a temporary deal, this was done in November 2023, and the Israelis undermined that,” Hamdan said.

So we want a comprehensive agreement that includes a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from all parts of Gaza, he said.

Regional tensions

Hamas has learned from the past that every time it was closer to a deal and everyone thought it was within reach, the Israelis would do something different, like commit atrocities, target or assassinate a leader, Hassan Harari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera.

Among the sticking points are conditions Israel has added since the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on the proposal in May, including Israel's continued presence in the Philadelphia Corridor separating Egypt's Sinai region from the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of checkpoints to monitor population movements from the south to the north.

Netanyahu is procrastinating to prevent Hamas from accepting, Harari said. But from the Israeli perspective, some circles also consider these demands legitimate.

The discussions will also focus on the list of names of captives to be released in Gaza, the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released and the timetable for their release.

Without a doubt [Blinkens] The biggest challenge will likely be convincing senior Israeli government officials, Netanyahu in particular, to be more flexible with their demands for the deal, Al Jazeeras' Zein Basravi said.

There is a lot of negativity from a number of experts, people here on the ground, regarding the success of this deal, because they say that what the United States and Israel are doing is creating a sense of cautious optimism while moving the goalposts and shifting the blame on Hamas for not agreeing to a deal, Basravi added, reporting from Amman, Jordan due to Israel's ban on Al Jazeera.

Hamas and some Israeli analysts and protesters have accused Netanyahu of obstructing a deal aimed at protecting his far-right ruling coalition.

“We have a prime minister who is not very willing to release the hostages, to end the war, because he has his own interests,” Yossi, a 53-year-old protester in Tel Aviv, told AFP news agency.

The talks are taking place under the threat of regional escalation, with Iran vowing to retaliate against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israel's deadly attacks continue, with nearly 20 people killed overnight Sunday to Monday, including a family of eight. This week, the death toll from Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip has reached 40,000, according to Palestinian health authorities.

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