A day after the United Nations Security Council endorsed a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal for the Gaza Strip, the focus shifted on Tuesday to the willingness of Israel and Hamas, under growing international pressure to end the war, to make a deal.
Each side made positive but vague statements about the cease-fire plan and blamed the other for prolonging a war that has devastated Gaza.
But neither said it would formally embrace the proposal, which was outlined last month in a speech by President Biden and was the basis of the 14-0 vote in the Security Council on Monday.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, touring the region for the eighth time since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel, said on Tuesday that the fate of the cease-fire proposal rested with Hamas’s top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.
Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, countered that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was “the sole obstacle to reaching an agreement that would end the war.”
Persons:
Biden, Antony J, Yahya Sinwar, Husam, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, ”
Organizations:
United Nations Security, Security, Hamas
Locations:
U.S, Gaza, Israel