U.S. pushes Hamas to accept cease-fire before Israel Rafah invasion
There was renewed hope for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as the U.S. pushed for an agreement that would head off an assault on Gaza Rafah.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The United States led a last-ditch effort Monday to secure a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that would head off an assault on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.
U.S. officials do not believe Israel is ready to launch a full-scale ground incursion of Rafah, providing a crucial window to secure a deal for a truce and the release of hostages still held by Hamas, two people familiar with the American position told NBC News.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the Middle East leading the diplomatic effort — lent urgency by the possible military assault on a city where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering — after President Joe Biden reiterated U.S. opposition to a Rafah operation in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
The push comes as protests against Israel’s actions rock college campuses across the U.S. and as Israel fears its leaders could soon face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UC Berkeley campus last week. Justin Sullivan / Getty ImagesBlinken, speaking in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, said that the cease-fire proposal handed to Hamas by mediators from Qatar and Egypt was “extraordinarily generous.” He added that Hamas had to “decide quickly” about the offer and that he was “hopeful that they will make the right decision.”
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