Antony Blinken arrives in Israel where negotiations to end the war in Gaza will be discussed

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel in his latest attempt to force a freeze on the Gaza hostage release deal.

His ninth trip to the region since the war began in October comes days after the US presented a revised proposal aimed at bridging the long-standing rift between the two sides.

The US and Israel have expressed confidence in a deal since talks resumed in Doha last week, but Hamas says proposals for progress are “illusory”.

The difference is said to include whether the Israeli army will have to fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip, as Hamas insists.

A Hamas source told Saudi media that the proposals include the IDF maintaining a reduced presence along the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip along the southern border with Gaza and Egypt.

But Israeli sources told the Times of Israel that other procedures on the border could compensate for the Israeli withdrawal from the area in the first phase of the agreement.

The Israeli army launched an operation in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were captured.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the area.

A ceasefire deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 hostages to end a week of freeing 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Israel says 111 hostages are still being held, 39 of whom are presumed dead.

US President Joe Biden said earlier this week that we are “closer than ever” to a deal.

But earlier optimism expressed during months of ongoing negotiations proved unfounded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that there are difficult negotiations going on to secure the return of hostages, but there are principles that must be followed to protect Israel.

“There are things we can be flexible about, and there are things we can’t be flexible about, and we insist on them. We know very well the difference between the two,” he said.

He also accused Hamas of being “stubborn” in the negotiations and said that pressure must be put on this terrorist group.

A senior Hamas official told the BBC on Saturday: “What we have received from the mediators is very disappointing. There has been no progress”.

The first deal outlined by President Biden, based on Israel’s May 27 proposal, would have been implemented in three phases:

• The first will include a “full and complete cease-fire” lasting six weeks, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all residential areas of Gaza, and the exchange of some of the hostages – including women, the elderly and the sick or injured – to Palestinian prisoners. in Israel.
• The second phase will include the release of all other living hostages and a “permanent end to hostilities”.
• The third will see the start of a major plan to rebuild Gaza and the return of the remains of the dead hostages.

Meanwhile, Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 21 people, including six children, on Sunday.

The IDF said on Sunday it destroyed rocket launchers that used to attack Israel from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where fighting has been going on for the past few weeks, killing 20 Palestinians.