Blinken confirms Netanyahu accepts US hostage deal, says ‘It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same’

Hamas reiterates rejection of current deal after failed Tel Aviv suicide bombing

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After their meeting on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on board with the current U.S. “bridging proposal,” noting that it was now up to Hamas to accept it.

“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal — that he supports it,” Blinken told reporters. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”

“These are still complex issues, and they’re going to require hard decisions by the leaders,” he added. “Ultimately, it comes down to those decisions. But there is, I think, a real sense of urgency here across the region on the need to get this over the finish line and to do it as soon as possible.”

In recent days, Netanyahu has faced criticism from several Israeli media outlets for reportedly insisting on several red lines. Members of the negotiating team have warned that this stance could hinder Hamas's willingness to agree.

Blinken’s comments appeared to confirm that the mediators had accepted his stance and were now expecting Hamas to show flexibility.

“The next important step is for Hamas to say yes, and then in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together” to find a way to implement the agreement, Blinken said.

“If the U.S. administration was serious, we wouldn’t need more negotiations – only to implement Biden’s proposal,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan stated on Monday night.

Hamas officially rejected the latest U.S. proposal, claiming to have agreed to the original outline presented by U.S. President Joe Biden in May and wanting to implement it without changes.

Hamdan told Reuters the updated U.S. deal proposal and Netanyahu’s acceptance of it raised “many ambiguities” because it’s “not what was presented to us, nor what we agreed on.”

Blinken dismissed Hamas’ rejection of the deal, claiming it didn’t reflect the terror group’s true position.

“I can’t speculate on exactly what Hamas’s intentions are. We’ve seen public statements [from Hamas], but we’ve seen public statements before that don’t fully reflect where Hamas is,” he said in a statement.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal cited Arab sources saying that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar believes the current round of talks is a bluff intended to give Israel more time to wage war.

Blinken, for his part, said the “bridging proposal” was attempting to “close some gaps or to clarify different parts” of the original outline “that needed clarification.”

Later in the day, Biden said the proposal “is still in play, but you can’t predict,” after leaving the Democratic National Convention. “Israel says they can work it out… Hamas is now backing away.”

Blinken’s statements to the press followed his meeting with Netanyahu, which was described as “positive and … held in a good atmosphere,” by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

“The Prime Minister reiterated Israel's commitment to the current American proposal on the release of our hostages, which takes into account Israel's security needs, which he strongly insists on,” the PMO stated.

Netanyahu later said he appreciated “the efforts that the US is making in regional defense against the Iranian axis… I also greatly appreciate the understanding that the US has shown for our vital security interests as part of our joint efforts to bring about the release of our hostages.”

The Times of Israel reported that, in their meeting, Blinken showed that he understood Israel’s insistence on leaving a presence in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, which has been one of the main points of contention in the current talks.

“The Americans did not reject Israel’s strategic logic,” an Israeli official told the Times, adding that Israel couldn’t leave the border as “we cannot be sure that we can go back” in case the need arises, due to international pressure.

The current proposal includes “some kind” of security presence in the corridor, Channel 12 News reported. However, Hamas rejects this completely and Egypt also seeks to minimize Israel’s presence there.

Israeli media reported that a meeting in Cairo on Monday between an Israeli delegation and their counterparts ended without any progress.

Negotiations are expected to continue during Blinken’s meetings in Cairo and Doha on Tuesday, amid efforts to convene another summit at the end of the week to seal the deal.

“There is a deep sense of urgency for getting this done,” Blinken said on Monday, noting that a hostage release and truce agreement between Hamas and Israel is “the best way to make sure the conflict doesn’t spread, that we don’t see escalation, that we can actually defuse some of the pressure points that we see throughout the region, and then open prospects for trying to build more enduring peace and security for everyone throughout the Middle East.”