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Middle East conflict

Blinken talks about 'last chance' to reach deal on Gaza

The US Secretary of State arrived in Israel the night before

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli President Isaac Herzog Kevin Mohatt/Pool Photo via AP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli President Isaac Herzog

© Kevin Mohatt/Pool Photo via AP

TEL AVIV, August 19. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the current round of talks on the Gaza Strip is the "last chance" to return hostages and reach a ceasefire in the embattled enclave.

"This is a decisive moment — probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security," the Ynet portal quoted him as saying during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

Blinken arrived in Israel the night before; on August 19, he also has meetings scheduled with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

During the meeting, the Israeli president blamed the absence of a deal on "a refusal of Hamas to move forward."

"There is no greater humanitarian objective, and there's no greater humanitarian cause than bringing back our hostages home as they should have returned long ago," he added.

On August 15 in Doha, another round of talks kicked off on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the return of hostages. In a joint statement, Egypt, Qatar and the US noted that the negotiations were held in a positive atmosphere. The sides agreed to hold their next meeting in Cairo before the end of the week. It was specified that, in the near future, technical teams will continue to develop the mechanisms of implementing the main points of the agreements, including swapping the hostages, held in the Gaza Strip, for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, as well as stabilizing the humanitarian situation in the enclave.

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