WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday proposed international security forces and temporary UN leadership to stabilise Gaza, but said Israel in turn must agree on a pathway to a Palestinian state.
With talks in Qatar nearing a ceasefire in the devastating 15-month conflict, Blinken laid out his long-awaited roadmap for Gaza with days left before he leaves office.
Blinken acknowledged the misgivings of Israel — where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a far-right government and expects even stronger US support under President-elect Donald Trump — but pleaded for a new approach.
“We’ve long made the point to the Israeli government that Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone,” Blinken said at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.
“Without a clear alternative, a post-war plan and a credible political horizon for the Palestinians, Hamas — or something just as abhorrent and dangerous — will grow back,” he said.
In line with his calls since the start of the conflict, Blinken said that Gaza should be under the control of the Palestinian Authority — which now holds shaky, partial control of the West Bank and has been repeatedly undermined by Israel.
Acknowledging the limitations of the Palestinian Authority, Blinken said an unstated number of countries have offered to send troops and police to Gaza.
He said that the “interim security mission” would include both foreign forces and “vetted Palestinian personnel”. “We believe that the Palestinian Authority should invite international partners to help establish and run an interim administration with responsibility for key civil sectors in Gaza, like banking, water, energy, health,” Blinken said.
The Palestinian Authority would coordinate with Israel and the rest of the international community, which would be asked to provide funding.
A senior UN official would oversee the effort, which would be enshrined by a UN Security Council resolution, Blinken said.
“The interim administration would include Palestinians from Gaza and representatives from the PA selected following meaningful consultation with communities in Gaza,” Blinken said.
The interim authority “would hand over a complete responsibility to a fully reformed PA administration as soon as it’s feasible,” he said.
The deal would take shape in negotiations after an initial ceasefire, which both Blinken and President Joe Biden said was on the “brink” of acceptance.
Final details of Gaza truce deal being worked out
Negotiators met in Qatar on Tuesday hoping to hammer out final details of a ceasefire in Gaza, with mediators and the warring sides all describing a deal as closer than ever.
More than six hours after talks began, but there was still no official word on an outcome.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a news conference that talks on the final details were underway after both sides were presented with a text.
US President Joe Biden, whose administration has been taking part alongside an envoy of president-elect Donald Trump, said a deal was close.
Under the proposal, Israel will receive around 100 prisoners, or their bodies, in return for releasing 1,000 Palestinian prisoners
Hamas said the talks had reached the final steps and that it hoped this round of negotiations would lead to a deal after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
An Israeli official said talks had reached a critical phase although some details needed to be hammered out.
“We are close, we are not there yet.”
Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, which is separate from Hamas and also holds Israeli prisoners in Gaza, said it was sending a senior delegation that would arrive in Doha on Tuesday night to take part in final arrangements for a ceasefire deal.
Biden said on Monday the deal would free Israeli prisoners, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow the US to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war.
If successful, the phased ceasefire — capping over a year of start-and-stop talks — could halt fighting that decimated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, made most of the enclave’s population homeless and is still killing dozens a day.
That in turn could ease tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has fuelled conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Iran.
Under the deal Israel would recover around 100 prisoners or their bodies from among those taken into custody by Hamas on Oct 7, 2023, and in return Israel would free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in the first phase.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was up to Hamas to accept a deal that was already set for implementation.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israeli strikes continue
Fighting has meanwhile raged on, focused on Gaza’s northern edge where Israel claims its forces are trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians say the Israelis are trying to permanently depopulate a buffer zone. Nightly Israeli strikes have continued across the enclave.
Gaza health officials said on Tuesday Israeli strikes killed at least 27 Palestinians on Monday, including one Gaza journalist.
One of those attacks killed 10 people in a house in Khan Younis south of the enclave. Another strike killed nine Palestinians in a tent encampment in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.
Trump’s Jan 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline for a ceasefire agreement. — With inputs from agencies