Blinken leaves Middle East with Gaza ceasefire deal still elusive

Antony Blinken warned ‘time is of the essence’ to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas

‘The deal needs to get done and it needs to get done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line,’ Antony Blinken said in Qatar (AFP/Getty)

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has warned that “time is of the essence” to secure a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as he finished his latest Middle East trip with a truce still proving elusive.

Mr Blinken said Washington was doing everything possible to secure an agreement between Israel and Hamas.

It comes after Mr Blinken said Israel had accepted the latest proposal to end the 10-month-old war while Hamas said it veered too close to Israel’s demands.

“The deal needs to get done and it needs to get done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line,” Mr Blinken said.

The plan would involve an initial six-week ceasefire, during which a limited number of female, elderly and sick Israeli hostages would be freed in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza, where the 10-month-long war has uprooted millions and killed thousands (AP)

It would be indefinitely extendable while negotiators settled the second stage, in which soldiers and bodies would be returned, Israeli troops would begin to withdraw from Gaza and displaced Palestinian civilians would be allowed to return to their homes in the north of the strip.

But one of the main sticking points to an agreement has been Hamas’s longstanding demand for a “complete” withdrawal of Israeli troops from all parts of Gaza, which Israel has reportedly rejected.

In Qatar, Mr Blinken was asked about Israeli troop withdrawal terms within the ceasefire framework – with Israel wanting to keep troops in the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza.

“The United States does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel,” Mr Blinken said.

“More specifically, the agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of the Israeli Defence Forces withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that. So that’s as much as I know. That’s what I’m very clear about.”

Both Hamas and Egypt oppose Israel keeping troops in the Philadelphi Corridor but Mr Netanyahu has insisted they are needed to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza.

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah Sisi with US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Tuesday (Egyptian Presidency/AFP/Getty)

Egyptian security sources said the US has proposed an international presence in the Philadelphi Corridor area, a suggestion the sources said could be acceptable to Cairo if limited to a maximum of six months.

“The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region,” Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah Sisi said after meeting Mr Blinken.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people since October, according to Palestinian health authorities in the Hamas-run strip.

The war in Gaza began on 7 October when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities and military bases, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 50 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, Palestinian health authorities said on Wednesday, as the military said troops continued to target Hamas and seize weapons and ammunition. The Israeli military said jets hit around 30 targets throughout the Gaza Strip including tunnels, launch sites and an observation post.

It said troops killed dozens of armed fighters and captured weapons including explosives, grenades and automatic rifles. The military issued new evacuation orders in the heavily overcrowded area of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter.

For the displaced left exposed in Deir al-Balah, the lack of progress towards a ceasefire compounded the misery as they searched for space away from the fighting.

“Where will we go? Where will we go?” said Aburakan, 55, a displaced person from Gaza City in the territory’s north who has had to change refuge five times since October.

“We feel they are closing in. I live a few hundred metres from the threatened areas, and I have been searching since the early morning in vain for a space in western Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, or Nuseirat,” he told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched more than 50 rockets into Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, hitting a number of homes according to first responders. Hezbollah – which, like ally Hamas, is backed by Iran – said the attack was in response to an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon on Tuesday night that killed one and injured 19. On Tuesday, Hezbollah launched more than 200 projectiles toward Israel, after Israel targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot some 80km (50 miles) from the border, a significant increase in the daily skirmishes. Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily strikes for almost the entirety of the war in Gaza.

In the Red Sea, the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion was adrift after coming under multiple attacks, the UK maritime agency (UKMTO) said. Delta Tankers, the ship’s operator, confirmed the ship was adrift and had sustained minor damage. Its crew was assessing the situation and it would proceed on its journey, it said in a statement.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have launched a series of attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November over the war in Gaza.

Reuters contributed to this report