Blinken meets with Netanyahu amid Gaza ceasefire efforts

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, while talks in Cairo continue a possible agreement between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza ceasefire.

Matthew State Department spokesman Miller said Mr. Blinken “underlined that the obstacle to the truce is Hamas”.

The Hamas group has so far refused to accept a proposal calling for a week-long ceasefire of fighting that has been running for 7 months, as well as the release of persons still held hostage by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

But although Mr. Blinken held Hamas responsible for failing to reach the ceasefire, Mr. Miller said that the American chief diplomat told Mr. Netanyahu that the United States continues to disagree with Israel's land offensive leader's calls to the town of Rafah, south of Gaza, where Israel says it aims to eradicate the remaining four units of the Hamas fighters.

“We cannot and will not support a major military operation in Rafah, without an effective plan ensuring there will be no injuries to civilians and no, we have not seen such a plan”, Mr. Blinken said at a press conference in Ashdod in Israel.

The United States, the United Nations and numerous world officials have voiced opposition to an attack on Rafah because more than a million Palestinian refugees have been sheltered there, many of them ordered by the Israeli army to flee their homes in northern Gaza during the first weeks of war.

Mr. Netanyah says the offensive in Rafah is necessary to fulfill Israel's purpose to eliminate Hamas' control in Gaza and that this will happen regardless of whether there is an agreement with Hamas for ceasefire and the release of hostages. / VOA