US urges Hamas to agree with Israel on Gaza cease-fire

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The United States pushed Hamas Tuesday to accept a cease-fire deal with Israel to halt fighting in Gaza for six weeks, while also releasing some of the 100 or so hostages held by the U.S.-designated terror group in exchange for Israel freeing hundreds of Palestinians it has jailed.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington that it was a “very serious” proposal presented to Hamas in Cairo last weekend and “should be accepted.”

“The ball is in Hamas’s court,” Blinken said. “The world is watching to see what it does.”

He added that the fact that Hamas has not already agreed to the terms “says what it thinks of the people of Gaza, which is not much.”

Israel declared war on Hamas after its shock October 7 terror attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel’s subsequent counter-offensive in Gaza has killed more than 33,000 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials, while the Israeli military says several thousand Hamas fighters are among those killed.

As of mid-February, 112 hostages had been freed, most during a weeklong cease-fire in November, while 36 more are believed to have died or been killed in Gaza during the six months of fighting.

Blinken said the war could have ended months ago if Hamas “had put down its guns, stopped hiding behind civilians and surrendered.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday an undisclosed date has been set for its military to invade Rafah on the Gaza-Egyptian border, a region where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering to try to remain safe.