US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said nearly 90 per cent of the Gaza deal was ready and urged both Israel and Hamas to agree on the common points and finalise the much-required ceasefire deal to end the conflict in Gaza.
Blinken said that the US is ready to offer further ideas in the coming days through mediators Egypt and Qatar in hopes of finally achieving the ceasefire after 11 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Contrary to Blinken’s assessment, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied reports of the deal being nearly ready, adding “it was not close” during a televised interview with a news channel.
However, Blinken reiterated the assessment at a news conference during his visit to Haiti, saying “I think based on what I have assessed and seen, 90 per cent was done and agreed.” He added, “It’s obligatory on both parties to get to yes on these remaining issues.”
“As close as I believe we are to getting a ceasefire agreement, every day that goes by where it is not finalised and the parties don’t say, ‘yes, period,’ is a day in which something else happens, and there is an intervening event which simply pushes things off and runs the risk of derailing what is a pretty fragile applecart,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, the conditions of the 1.7 million internally displaced refugees are deteriorating with each passing day.
According to UN estimates, it would require billions of dollars to restructure Gaza’s infrastructure to at least make it run, and require decades of intervention to fully re-establish the Gaza Strip.
The death toll in Gaza has crossed over 40,000 in the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza post-October 7, Hamas assault which left nearly 1200 people dead including personnel from the Israeli armed forces.
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