The latest round of talks is underway in Egypt, where Antony Blinken is meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is hosting him at his summer residence. The US envoy will then head to Qatar, where intense talks on a Gaza truce have been underway for the past week.
It was in Doha that the US put forward proposals to bring Israel and Hamas closer together and implement the May truce plan proposed by US President Joe Biden, who is increasingly criticized at home for failing to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.
Difficult talks
Despite Blinken’s optimism and the positive assessment of the talks by the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both Israel and the Palestinian side have made it clear that reaching an agreement will not be easy.
For months, Israel has insisted that the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force, while Hamas has insisted that it will only accept a permanent, not temporary, truce.
Disagreements remain over Israel’s continued military presence in Gaza, particularly along the border with Egypt, freedom of movement for Palestinians within the territory, and the number and names of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who would be released as part of the swap.
Hamas officials also accuse Washington of appeasing Israel
“When Blinken says the Israelis have agreed, and then the Israelis say there are updated offers, that means the Americans have been pressured by Israel, not the other way around”, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Reuters. “We believe these are maneuvers to buy Israel time”.
Mustafa Barghouti, a spokesman for the Palestinian National Initiative, is also not particularly optimistic about the possibility of a deal with Israel.
“While Blinken says Netanyahu has agreed to his proposals, Netanyahu himself has never confirmed this, and the main disagreement is this: Israel only wants a break and then a resumption of its terrible war, while the Palestinians want an end to the wars”, Barghouti told the BBC. “And secondly, Netanyahu wants to keep his troops in Gaza. Netanyahu even wants to make humanitarian aid conditional on political conditions. These are very serious problems, and if Netanyahu is allowed to continue in the same spirit, he will completely undermine any chance of achieving a truce”.
In turn, the US president himself, apparently, does not fully share the optimism of his secretary of state, but for a different reason.
On Tuesday, Joe Biden said that Hamas was “backing out” of the deal with Israel on a truce in Gaza.
“They are still in the game, but it is impossible to predict anything”, he noted. “Israel says they can succeed, but now Hamas is backtracking”.
Hamas, meanwhile, was quick to accuse Biden of being ready to abandon the ceasefire and give Israel the “green light” to continue the war.
These “false statements do not reflect the true position of our movement, which is seeking a ceasefire”, Hamas said in a statement.
In recent weeks, hostilities have threatened to escalate into a full-scale regional war following the assassination of Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in late July.
Iran has said it will refrain from retaliating against Israel while negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of hostages are ongoing, but will respond if the talks fail or if Tehran perceives Israel as dragging its feet. The United States has repeatedly warned Iran against any escalation.
