Blinken in Israel to push ceasefire plan for Gaza as war rages on

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with key Israeli opposition figures on Tuesday, a day after he arrived in the country to push a ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza.

His visit is part of a drive by the United States to secure a ceasefire in the eight-month war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

On Monday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution supporting a six-week ceasefire plan, under which Israel would withdraw from Gaza population centres and Hamas would free hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the war.

Blinken will on Tuesday meet Benny Gantz, a centrist and former army chief who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government on Sunday, in Tel Aviv, as well as opposition leader Yair Lapid.

The United States, a staunch ally of Israel, had been widely criticised for blocking several previous U.N. draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

 Blinken said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "reaffirmed his commitment" to a Gaza ceasefire proposal during their meeting in Jerusalem.

"I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu last night and he reaffirmed his commitment to the proposal," Blinken said, adding that Hamas's welcoming of a U.N. vote on the ceasefire resolution was a "hopeful" sign.

"It is hopeful sign, just as the statement issued after the president (Joe Biden) made his proposal 10 days ago was hopeful," he said.

"But it's not dispositive. What is dispositive - or at least what so far been dispositive in one way or another - is the word coming from Gaza and from the Hamas leadership in Gaza. And that's what counts. And that's what we don't have.

"We await the answer from Hamas," he said.

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