May be the last chance: Blinken on Gaza ceasefire talks

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the current ceasefire agreement in Gaza could be the last chance to secure the return of hostages and end the fighting between Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization in the United States, and Israel, reports UNN with reference to voice of America.

"This is a crucial moment — probably the best, perhaps the last opportunity to bring the hostages home, achieve a ceasefire and guide everyone on the best path to lasting peace and security," Blinken said on Monday.

Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday and was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later in the day.

This is his ninth trip to the region since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7. Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar met in Doha, Qatar, last week to work out the latest version of the agreement, and discussions are expected to resume in Cairo later this week.

Shortly after Blinken arrived in Israel on Sunday, a bomb exploded near a synagogue in Tel Aviv, killing the person who was driving it and injuring a passerby, Israeli police said. On Monday, the police qualified the explosion as a terrorist attack.

Also on Monday, Israel continued its advance north of Khan Yunis and increased its bombing of the suburbs of Gaza City at night, Reuters reported.

Lebanon's health ministry said two people were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon's official national news agency reported Israeli shelling and raids in several areas.

Hezbollah, recognized as a terrorist organization in the United States, announced that it carried out a "simultaneous air attack" using "explosive — armed drones" on two Israeli military positions-a barracks near the border and a base near the coastal city of Acre.

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Last month, an Israeli strike near Beirut killed Fouad Shukra, one of Hezbollah's top commanders, shortly before the attack in Tehran that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Although Israel did not claim responsibility for Haniyeh's death, it was charged with assault.

Both Iran and Iran-backed Hezbollah have vowed to avenge the murders. The ceasefire agreement is seen as a way to prevent more war in the region.

In a statement on Monday, Blinken stressed that he was in Israel as part of an "intense diplomatic effort on President Biden's instructions to try to bring this deal" to a conclusion.

He said it was time for Israel and Hamas to agree to a truce.

"It's also time to make sure that no one has taken any steps that could disrupt this process," he said."So we are trying to make sure that there will be no escalation, no provocations, no actions that could in any way lead us away from concluding this agreement or, for that matter, escalating the conflict to other places and with greater intensity.

The negotiators have been trying to reach an agreement for months.

The basic scheme of the ceasefire agreement remains unchanged. This is a three-phase process in which the fighting will be suspended for six weeks, while Hamas will begin to release about 110 hostages it still holds, of whom about 70 are alive, and Israel will release hundreds of Palestinians it has imprisoned.

The mediators hope to put an end to the war, which began on October 7 with a Hamas attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. According to Hamas-controlled health authorities, more than 40,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, were killed in the Israeli counteroffensive. The Israeli military claims that the death toll includes thousands of Hamas militants killed.