Saudi foreign minister, US secretary of state discuss efforts for cease-fire in Gaza

By Ibrahim Khazen

RIYADH (AA) - Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed efforts to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip in a phone call late Sunday with his US counterpart Antony Blinken.

The top diplomats discussed “developments in the region, including efforts to end the war on the Gaza Strip and developments in Sudan and Yemen,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Blinken arrived in Israel as part of efforts to advance a deal for a hostage swap and a cease-fire in Gaza, according to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily.

Cease-fire talks in the Qatari capital Doha concluded Friday by presenting "a proposal that narrows the gaps" between Israel and Hamas that is consistent with the principles set out by US President Joe Biden on May 31.

Biden said in May that Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a cease-fire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and the reconstruction of Gaza.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed nearly 40,100 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,500, according to local health authorities.

More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala