US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday (5) that it is up to Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to say yes to the gaps that still need to be resolved to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
“Based on what I’ve seen, they’re 90 percent in agreement, but there are some critical issues that remain,” including the so-called Philadelphia corridor at the southern end of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, Blinken told a news conference in Haiti.
He said there were also some gaps in the agreement over how Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are exchanged.
“I hope that in the coming days we will share with Israel, and they (Qatar and Egypt) will share with Hamas our thoughts, the three of us, on exactly how to resolve the remaining outstanding issues,” Blinken said, referring to the deal’s mediators.
President Joe Biden unveiled a three-phase ceasefire proposal on May 31, but gaps have remained since then in a final agreement for a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
Hamas has rejected any Israeli presence in the Philadelphia corridor, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not abandon the corridor.
This week, Turkey, five Arab countries including regional power Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority joined Egypt in rejecting Israel’s demand to keep its troops stationed in the Philadelphia corridor.
Asked whether it was still possible for Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations, Blinken said “there is still an opportunity” to do so if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
The current war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-ruled enclave has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a famine and prompting accusations of genocide at the World Court, which Israel denies.
This content was originally published in Blinken says it is up to Hamas and Israel to eliminate gaps in ceasefire agreement on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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