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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to pressure Hamas to accept a new ceasefire proposal for the Gaza Strip during talks on Friday with top diplomats from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that speaking by phone from a plane returning from a NATO meeting in Prague, Blinken “emphasized that Hamas should accept the agreement without delay.”
“Blinken emphasized that his proposal serves the interests of both Israel and Palestine and the long-term security of the region,” Miller said.
US President Joe Biden earlier announced a surprise proposal that would begin with a six-week complete ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza.
Hamas, which sparked the war with its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, will release the hostages in return.
The two sides would then negotiate a long-term agreement aimed at ending the war, a deal that Biden said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports.
Hamas was made aware of the proposal through Qatar, a key intermediary that maintains ties with both the militants and the United States.
In his back-and-forth diplomacy in the region, Blinken has spent time engaging Saudi Arabia, custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites, in the hope that the prospect of normalizing ties with the country will encourage Netanyahu to moderate his far-right government.
Jordan is a key U.S. partner in a region that is especially sensitive to war because of its large Palestinian population and ties to Israel.
Blinken had just met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Prague the day before.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel, has met with Hamas leaders and received Hamas members for medical treatment.
But Turkey is also a NATO ally and one of the few Muslim-majority countries with ties to Israel.
Hamas attacks in October killed 1,189 people in Israel, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 252 hostages taken that day, 121 remain in Gaza and the army says 37 have died.
More than 36,280 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
According to the Israeli military, 294 soldiers have been killed in military operations in Gaza since the ground offensive began on October 27.
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