Comment on Blinken urges Israel and Hamas to move ahead with a cease-fire deal and says ‘the time is now’

By MATTHEW LEE and SAM MEDNICK (Associated Press) TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting with Israeli leaders on Wednesday in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a pause in the nearly seven months of war in Gaza. He said Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal off the ground. Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October in his bid to secure what’s been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering. The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue — whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal. “We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken told Israel’s ceremonial President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Tel Aviv. “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses.