Blinken asks Türkiye, Saudi, Jordan to push Hamas on Biden's truce deal

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has held separate phone calls with foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Jordan, the State Department said, asking his counterparts from the three countries to press Hamas resistance group to accept a new Gaza ceasefire plan announced by President Joe Biden.

In telephone calls from his plane as he returned from a NATO meeting in Prague, Blinken "emphasised that Hamas should accept the deal without delay," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Blinken "underscored that the proposal is in the interests of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the long-term security of the region," Miller said.

Biden earlier announced the surprise proposal which would begin with a six-week complete ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from populated areas of Gaza.

Hamas would in return release hostages. Out of 252 people taken hostage that day, 121 are still being held inside Gaza , including 37 who the army says are dead, many of them believed to be in Israeli air strikes.

The two sides would then negotiate a longer-term deal aimed at ending the war. Biden said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the deal.

Hamas was informed of the proposal through Qatar, a key mediator which maintains relations with Palestinians.

Blinken-Fidan meeting

Blinken had met just one day earlier in Prague with the Turkish foreign minister.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a critic of Israel, has met Hamas leaders and welcomed Palestinian wounded for medical treatment.

Türkiye is also a NATO ally.

"Türkiye has been almost the only country to draw attention to the Gaza problem," Fidan said at a news conference after an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in the Czech capital of Prague.

He said at the meeting: "We underlined again that if the massacre and genocide in Gaza are not stopped, if a cease-fire agreement and humanitarian aid operation is not initiated immediately, and if a two-state solution is not pursued, this problem will grow, evolve, involve other actors and turn into a global problem."

Israel has waged a brutal invasion on Gaza since Hamas' October 7 blitz on Israeli military and settlements that were once Arab villages and farms.

Hamas says its raid that surprised its arch-enemy was orchestrated in response to Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank and to put Palestine question "back on the table."

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas fighters rolled into as many as 22 locations outside Gaza, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza fence.

At some places they are said to have gunned down many soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster response.

The hours-long attack and Israeli military's haphazard response resulted in the killing of more than 1,130 people, Israeli officials and local media say.

Palestinian fighters took more than 250 hostages and presently 121 remain in Gaza, including 37 who the Israeli army says are dead, some of them killed in indiscriminate Israeli strikes.

According to the Israeli military, Palestinian fighters have killed 294 Israeli soldiers since the start of the ground invasion on October 27. Hamas says the figure is higher than what Tel Aviv has reported.

Israel has since then killed more than 36,000 Palestinians — majority of them babies, women and children — and wounded more than 82,000 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

In the occupied West Ban, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded since October 7 by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, along with daily arrest by the Israeli occupation army.

Around 85% of Gaza's 2.4 million people have fled their homes. Severe hunger is widespread, and UN officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine. Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice.