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Blinken leaves Israel, no ceasefire agreement in Gaza
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a trip to the Middle East, while there have been no reports of a ceasefire or hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. As VOA correspondent Cindy Saine reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Mr. Blinken during the meeting on Wednesday that he would not accept any deal that conditioned the release of the hostages on the end of the war in Gaza.
The Israeli Prime Minister told Secretary Blinken that the planned operation in the city of Rafah will continue with or without the achievement of a ceasefire.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Tel Aviv on Wednesday with relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas, a militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Mr. Blinken has visited the region seven times since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas triggered by Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7. He is aiming to broker a ceasefire that would lead to the release of hostages and bring a pause in the war that has left some 35,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
The American diplomat and the chief of the Israeli army visited the "Kerem Shalom" crossing on the border with Gaza on Wednesday. Mr. Blinken said Israel had made significant concessions to allow more aid to the Palestinians and to achieve a ceasefire. He said the world is waiting for Hamas to accept the deal offered.
"Hamas must decide whether to accept this deal and improve the situation for the people in Gaza it claims to care about. There is no time for delays," said Mr. Blinken.
But Mr Blinken ended his tour of Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia without announcements of a ceasefire. Observers have been waiting for a broader deal to be reached, which would include the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, possibly in exchange for an agreement that would end the war in Gaza.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said he is not ready to end the war to reach a deal on the hostages. He said the planned attack on the city of Rafah, where at least 1 million Palestinians are sheltering, will be carried out whether a ceasefire is reached or not. Analyst Brian Katulis told VOA that Mr. Blinken has been unable to make progress.
"The real obstacle is the voices within Prime Minister Netanyahu's government that strongly oppose a Palestinian state. The Saudis have made it clear that they want to see as soon as possible the achievement of a ceasefire in Gaza and the commitment to building a Palestinian state.
Analyst Katulis said he was in Saudi Arabia last week and there has been a lot of progress on a military deal or other bilateral deals between Washington and Riyadh, but not on a broader deal with Israel./ VOA
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