The diplomat has said that Hamas would be responsible if an agreement cannot be reached.
Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war broke out in October, in an attempt to secure an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could prevent an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where sheltered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The current round of talks appears serious, but the two sides remain far apart on one key issue: whether the deal should spell the end of the war.
“We are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that might not happen is because of Hamas,” Blinken told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a meeting in Tel Aviv. The presidency is a representative position in Israel.
“There is a proposal on the table, and as we have said, no delays or excuses. This is the moment,” she said.
The pact would also bring urgently needed food, medicine and water to Gaza, Blinken said. The war has caused a humanitarian crisis and displaced a good part of the population in the territory.
Blinken also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire and Blinken reiterated the US position on Rafah, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
The secretary of state also talked about the “improvement” in the delivery of aid to Gaza in the last month and called on Netanyahu to work on that, Miller said.
Before meeting with Herzog and hosting relatives of Americans held by Hamas at his hotel, Blinken spoke briefly with a few dozen protesters calling for an immediate deal to release hostages on a sidewalk in front of the building.
Chanting “SOS, USA, only you can save the day” and “In Blinken we trust, bring them home,” the protesters urged him to convey their demands to Netanyahu.
The Secretary of State told the families that there was a very solid proposal on the table and that Hamas must accept it. “This is our determination, and we will not rest, we will not stop until you are reunited with your loved ones,” he said.
Blinken was on the final leg of a tour of the region that previously took him to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where he urged Hamas to accept the latest proposal, which he described as “extraordinarily generous” from Israel.
He was also scheduled to visit an Israeli port through which aid arrives for Gaza, according to the State Department.
Washington has strongly backed Israel’s war since Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. But he has been increasingly critical of the death toll among Gazan civilians, and especially the Israeli plan to attack Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and where some 1.5 million Palestinians shelter from fighting elsewhere, indicating that any major offensive there could cause harm to civilians and must be avoided.
Netanyahu has vowed several times to invade Rafah, which he describes as the last stronghold of Hamas, in the coastal enclave and on Tuesday assured that he would do so “with or without” a ceasefire agreement.
The proposal now being discussed — brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar — would involve releasing dozens of hostages in exchange for a six-week break in fighting in an initial phase, according to an Egyptian official and Israeli media. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel would also be freed, including some serving long sentences.
But there remains no agreement on what would happen next. Hamas has sought assurances that the release of all the hostages would mark the end of Israel’s nearly seven-month campaign on Gaza and a withdrawal of its troops from the battered territory.
Israel has only offered an extension of the truce and promises to resume its offensive once the first phase of the agreement passes. The issue has repeatedly hampered mediators’ efforts during talks in recent months.
Although the talks appeared to be gaining momentum, an Egyptian official said Wednesday that Hamas had asked Egyptian and Qatari mediators to clarify the terms of the latest proposal, which could delay the process.
The official, familiar with the negotiations and who spoke on condition of anonymity to comment freely on the agreement, said Hamas wants clear terms on the unconditional return of displaced people to northern Gaza to ensure that the second phase of the agreement includes beginning the withdrawal gradual and complete withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip.
The official said the current agreement did not fully explain who could return north and how it would be decided.
As contacts continued, so did the fighting.
The war between Israel and Hamas began with the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped about 250. Israel says the militants are still holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 already deceased.
The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused widespread destruction in several cities and towns and left northern Gaza at risk of famine.
Source: With information from AP
