U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken came out of his meetings in Israel yesterday claiming progress toward the ceasefire deal, but he was ambiguous as to whether it was the same agreement to which Hamas had previously agreed. When asked by a reporter if Netanyahu still insisted on Israeli military occupation of the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors, Blinken avoided an answer, and instead simply shifted the onus to Hamas, as responsible for the suffering in Gaza. He responded:
“So what I would say to Hamas and to its leadership is if it genuinely cares about the Palestinian people that it purports to somehow represent, then it will say yes to this agreement and it will work on clear understandings about how to implement it. Is Hamas, is its leadership actually looking out for Palestinian children, women, and men who are suffering at this very moment in Gaza? And if it is, it will agree.
“And then we’ll work on making sure that there’s clarity on all sides about how the agreement will be implemented, how they’re going to make good on their commitments, because not everything is spelled out in detail in the agreement. And I can’t comment on specific issues that remain, but as I said, there are questions of implementation and making sure that it’s clearly understood what each side will do to carry out its commitments.”
