As Blinken Visits Israel, World Awaits Hamas Answer on 'Very Generous' Hostage Deal

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel on Wednesday as the world awaited an answer from Hamas on whether it would accept an Israeli offer on a hostage deal that grants almost all of the terrorist group’s demands.

Blinken called the deal “very generous” earlier this week, reflecting the view of other western nations. In the deal, according to reports, Hamas would release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for thousands of convicted Palestinian terrorists. Israel would agree to withdraw from the sole corridor of Gaza that it currently holds, allowing Gazans who had evacuated from the north to return to the area. Further hostages could be traded for a long-term ceasefire.

The Israeli offer came after months of pressure on Israel from the Biden administration and other western nations.

Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sworn that Israel will continue its mission of destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, doing so would be virtually impossible under the terms on the table.

A Hamas delegation departed Cairo, Egypt, earlier this week for Doha, Qatar, to discuss the proposal with the group’s leadership. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition partners threatened to quit the government over the deal.

The ball is effectively in Hamas’s court. It could decide to reject the deal, hoping that growing international pressure on Israel to stop the war would prevent Israel from continuing to fight anyway. Or it could accept the deal, and force Israel to accept a disadvantageous end to the war that most Israelis would regard as a defeat — but possibly open the way for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, frustrating Hamas’s broader goal of destroying Israel entirely.

Blinken, meanwhile, stressed the need for a ceasefire and for more humanitarian aid to Gaza — drawing criticism from Israelis who noted that he no longer spoke about defeating Hamas or stopping terrorism more generally.

Blinken visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities attacked by Hamas, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to witness firsthand the devastation caused by the terrorist attack.

Blinken also visited the Gaza border at the Erez Crossing, which Hamas attacked on October 7, and which was reopened Wednesday to aid trucks.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.