TEL AVIV (Reuters) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday on another Middle East tour to push for a ceasefire in Gaza but Hamas raised doubts about the mission just hours after he landed by accusing Israel of undermining his efforts.
The Palestinian militant group said it holds Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for “thwarting the mediators’ efforts”, delaying an agreement and exposing Israeli hostages in Gaza to the same aggression faced by Palestinians.
On his ninth trip to the region since the war began in October, Blinken will meet on Monday with senior Israeli leaders including Netanyahu, a senior State Department official said.
After Israel, Blinken will continue onto Egypt.
The talks to strike a deal for a truce and return of hostages held in Gaza were now at an “inflection point”, a senior Biden administration official told reporters en route to Tel Aviv. “We think this is a critical time,” the official said.
The mediating countries — Qatar, the United States and Egypt — have so far failed to narrow enough differences to reach an agreement in months of on-off negotiations, and violence continued unabated in Gaza on Sunday.
Israeli strikes killed at least 21 people in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian health authorities said, including six children and their mother in an airstrike on a house in the central city of Deir Al-Balah. The youngest was aged 18 months, their grandfather Mohammed Khattab told Reuters as relatives later gathered around the bodies, wrapped in white shrouds.