[Politics] Blinken says 'time is now' for Israel-Hamas deal in Gaza

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken has told Israel and Hamas that "the time is now" for a deal to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza and free the remaining hostages held there.

Mr Blinken said a deal was on the table and Hamas should agree to it.

Mediators are awaiting a response from Hamas to the latest proposal.

It reportedly involves a 40-day ceasefire and the release of more than 30 Israeli hostages in exchange for many more Palestinian prisoners.

"We are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn't be achieved is because of Hamas," Mr Blinken said as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.

"There is a proposal on the table, and as we've said, no delays, no excuses. The time is now."

A senior Hamas official has denied the group is to blame for delays on reaching a new deal.

Families of the hostages were demonstrating outside and Mr Blinken greeted them, saying setting their loved ones free was "at the heart of everything we're trying to do".

About 130 hostages from among 253 kidnapped by Hamas during its unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October remain unaccounted for. At least 34 of them are presumed dead. The rest have been released or rescued.

The top US diplomat later visited the Israeli port of Ashdod, about 30km (20 miles) north of Gaza, where he insisted that Israel had made meaningful concessions to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal.

Mr Blinken said Israel had made progress on getting more aid into Gaza but this needed to be accelerated given the immense scale of need.

Ashdod was recently opened to aid shipments destined for Gaza, where the UN has warned of severe food shortages and looming famine.

On Wednesday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 30 trucks of humanitarian supplies from Jordan had for the first time entered northern Gaza via the Erez crossing.

Mr Blinken also repeated the US position that Israel should not launch a military incursion into the overcrowded southern city of Rafah without a clear plan to protect more than a million Palestinians who have been sheltering from the war there in dire humanitarian conditions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68939445