Blinken seeks to advance Gaza cease-fire, hostage swap with Israeli leaders

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has sought to advance a proposal for a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas during two separate meetings with Israeli leaders.

Blinken held talks on Thursday with Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz.

Lapid said his meeting with the top US diplomat took up the issue of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and measures to end funding for the Palestinian group.

"The whole Israeli society is determined to bring back the hostages and to eradicate Hamas. Those are not conflicting goals and we will not give up either," Lapid wrote on X.

The former premier said the discussions also dwelt on the need for a political settlement to the tension on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Tension has escalated along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah since early October, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

Blinken’s talks with Gantz, a former defense minister, also took up efforts to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Gantz said he spoke to Blinken about bringing in an "international actor" that can deliver aid into Gaza away without diversion to Hamas.

"The continued delivery of humanitarian aid cynically intercepted by Hamas enables them to continue governing, harms the civilians of Gaza and only prolongs the suffering and fighting," Gantz wrote on X.

Blinken held talks on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in an effort to push for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Netanyahu, however, held a press conference on Wednesday evening in which he rejected Hamas’ demands for a cease-fire in Gaza and vowed to continue the war in the enclave until achieving a “crushing victory” over the Palestinian group.

A Palestinian source told Anadolu that Hamas has proposed a 3-stage plan for a Gaza cease-fire that includes a 135-day pause in fighting in return for hostage releases.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas in October, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people, while more than 130 hostages remained in Hamas’ captivity.

At least 27,840 Palestinians have since been killed and 67,317 others injured in the Israeli onslaught, according to local health authorities.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli offensive, while all of them are food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and ⁠less than half of aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara