Blinken ends recent Middle East visit without ceasefire and warns: “Time is running out”

DOHA, Qatar — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since the start of the Gaza war without making a major breakthrough on a ceasefire agreement, warning on Tuesday that “time is running out” even as Hamas and Israel signalled that challenges remain.

After meetings in fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar, Blinken said that since Israel had accepted a proposal to bridge differences with the militant group, the focus was now on doing everything possible to “get Hamas on board” and ensure both sides agree on key implementation details.

“Our message is simple. It is clear and urgent,” he told reporters before leaving Qatar. “We must get across the finish line to a ceasefire and a hostage-taking agreement, and we must do it now. Time is running out.”

The urgency of the situation has increased following recent targeted killings of Hamas and Hezbollah militant leaders in Iran and Lebanon – both attributed to Israel – and vows of retaliation that have fuelled fears of a wider regional war.

Few details were released about the so-called bridge proposal from the US, Egypt and Qatar. Blinken said the plan and locations of the (Israeli) withdrawal from Gaza were “very clear”.

Hamas on Tuesday called the latest proposal a reversal of what it had agreed to and accused the US of submitting to Israel’s new conditions. There was no immediate US reaction.

Blinken’s comments at the end of his recent Israel-Hamas peacekeeping mission were notably devoid of the optimism expressed by Biden administration officials before his trip and before.

The optimistic tone throughout much of the spring and summer — U.S. officials at times talked about a ceasefire and a hostage agreement as if it were closer than ever — reflected at least part of the needed message, says Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Program.

“If they don’t exude optimism, there won’t even be the potential for enough momentum to keep things going,” Panikoff said.

The Americans have little choice but to continue to put pressure on Israel and Hamas to agree to a negotiated end to the fighting. But the real issue is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who helped orchestrate the October 7 attacks, Panikoff said. And they are “the two people who, frankly, were the most skeptical from the start” about peace.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, met with right-wing groups of families of fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza. The groups, which oppose a ceasefire, said he told them Israel would not give up two strategic corridors in Gaza, control of which is an obstacle to the talks. Netanyahu’s office did not comment on their report.

A senior U.S. official dismissed as “completely untrue” the claim that Netanyahu told Blinken that Israel would never leave the Philadelphia and Netzarim corridors. Such statements are “not constructive in getting a ceasefire agreement across the finish line,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Blinken’s private diplomatic talks.

Blinken’s meetings in Egypt, which borders Gaza, and in Qatar, where some Hamas leaders live in exile, came a day after his meeting with Netanyahu. Deep rifts appear to remain between Israel and Hamas, although angry statements are often used as leverage in negotiations.

Both men have seen their political standings improve at home as Israelis turn their attention from the war in Gaza to a looming larger conflict with Iran and Hezbollah, and Hamas further solidifies Sinwar’s leadership within the group. That has eased the pressure on both to strike a deal, Panikoff says.

And while the US could try to limit its arms sales to Israel to encourage the country to end the war with Hamas, Panikoff argues, doing so risks making Netanyahu even more stubborn.

Netanyahu’s meeting with the families came as the Israeli military announced it had recovered the bodies of six hostages kidnapped in the October 7 Hamas attack that started the war, sparking renewed grief among many Israelis who had long urged Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire that would see the remaining hostages brought home.

New protests took place on Tuesday. “The longer they are there, the more body bags we get,” said one of the demonstrators, Adi Israeli, in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military said it recovered the six bodies during a night operation in the southern Gaza Strip. They were killed during a troop operation in Khan Younis. Hamas said some of the prisoners were killed in Israeli air strikes. However, returning hostages spoke of difficult conditions, including a lack of food and medicine.

The recovery of the remains is also a blow to Hamas, which is hoping for a hostage exchange for Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire.

The military said it had identified the remains of Chaim Perry (80), Yoram Metzger (80), Avraham Munder (79), Alexander Dancyg (76), Nadav Popplewell (51) and Yagev Buchshtav (35).

Kibbutz Nir Oz, the farming community where Munder was among the 80 or so residents arrested, said he died after “months of physical and mental torture.” Israeli authorities had previously confirmed the other five were dead.

Hamas is believed to still be holding about 110 hostages it captured in the October 7 attacks, when the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israeli authorities believe about a third of the hostages are dead. Over 100 more hostages were released during last year’s ceasefire in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, although the count does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. The war has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Aid organizations fear outbreaks of polio and other diseases.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 12 people on Tuesday in a school in Gaza City that was being used as an emergency shelter. The Palestinian Civil Defense, a Hamas government aid organization, said around 700 people had sought shelter in the Mustafa Hafez school. The Israeli military said the attack was aimed at Hamas fighters who had set up a command center there.

“We don’t know where to go… or where to put our children,” said Um Khalil Abu Agwa, a displaced woman.

An Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah hit pedestrians on the street and killed seven people, including a woman and two children, according to an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies. Another airstrike in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, where an AP journalist counted the bodies.

Palestinians forced to flee their homes due to recent Israeli evacuation orders crowded into already overcrowded areas. A child in Deir al-Balah slept on cardboard boxes while insects flew around his face.

“Will they dig up the ground and dump us there or put us in a boat and throw us into the sea? I don’t know,” said one man, Abu Shady Afana.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war