Since the beginning of the Gaza War, the senior US official has made eight trips to the region.
“If you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes,” was Mr. Blinken’s stated message after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, will speak with him later on Monday in Jerusalem.
For months, mediators in the region—among whom Qatar is one—have been trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Mr. Netanyahu has pledged to oppose any such agreement unless all hostages are freed and Hamas’s military and political capacity is eliminated.
Following fierce gunfights between Israel’s soldiers and Hamas within and outside the Nuseirat refugee camp, four additional prisoners were released on Saturday with the support of airstrikes.
274 individuals, including civilians and children, were killed in the raid, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is governed by Hamas. Israel claims that the operation resulted in less than 100 deaths.
Following the offensive, the political head of Hamas declared that his organisation would not accept a ceasefire agreement unless Palestinian security was ensured.
Using his trip, Mr. Blinken is trying to make the case that Hamas is the only thing standing in the way of the truce for captive release that the US is sorely trying to negotiate.
“Is Hamas interested in putting a stop to this dispute, the war it initiated, or not? We will ascertain,” he said.
“But it’s clear that virtually the entire world has come together in support of the proposal.”
The three-phase plan that Mr. Biden unveiled ten days ago called for the reconstruction of Gaza with help from outside and a six-week truce that would eventually become permanent.
To successfully bounce the two parties into movement, the president referred to it as Israel’s plan.
The wording is “nearly identical,” according to the Biden administration, to one that Hamas approved last month.
It is probable that Hamas would need assurances that the proposal will result in an enduring truce and an entire Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip. It is unclear if indirect conversations can continue since, according to US and Israeli sources, its political leadership in Doha has not yet publicly responded to the idea.
In its operations in southern Israel on October 7, Hamas murdered over 1,200 people and kidnapped about 251 more.
There are still about 116 people in Palestinian land, 41 of whom the army claims are dead.
In accordance with an agreement reached in November, Hamas released 240 Palestinian inmates from Israeli jails and 105 hostages in exchange for a week-long truce.
According to the health ministry administered by Hamas, the number of fatalities in Gaza has topped 37,000.
