US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talks to reporters after meeting with families and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza by Hamas, who rallied during his visit, in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 11, 2024. Photo: Jack Guez/Pool via Reuters

Hamas accepts a UN resolution backing a plan to end the war with Israel in Gaza and is ready to negotiate details, a senior official of the Palestinian terrorist group said on Tuesday in what America’s top diplomat called a hopeful sign.

But Qatari and Egyptian mediators have not received formal replies from Hamas or Israel to the UN-backed truce proposal, an official close to the talks told Reuters, and both sides suggested on Tuesday the plan fit their clashing goals, raising doubt whether any genuine headway towards a deal had been made.

Discussions also touching on post-war plans for Gaza will continue over the next couple of days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tel Aviv after talks with Israeli leaders.

Blinken met Israeli officials on Tuesday in a push to end the eight-month-old Israeli air and ground war against Hamas in Gaza, a day after President Joe Biden’s proposal for a truce was approved by the UN Security Council.

Ahead of Blinken’s trip, Israel and Hamas both repeated hardline positions that have scuttled previous rounds of truce mediation, while Israel has pressed on with its military campaign in central and southern Gaza.

Biden’s proposal envisages a ceasefire and phased release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.

On Tuesday, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who is based outside Gaza, said it accepted the ceasefire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the specifics.

This required a formula stipulating the total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a swap of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinians jailed in Israel, he told Reuters.

“The US administration is facing a real test to carry out its commitments in compelling the occupation to immediately end the war in an implementation of the UN Security Council resolution,” Abu Zuhri said.

Blinken said the Hamas statement was “a hopeful sign” but definitive word was still needed from the Hamas leadership inside Israeli-besieged Gaza. “That’s what counts, and that’s what we don’t have yet.”

After Blinken left for Jordan, a senior Israeli government official, who asked not to be identified, said the published proposal would enable Israel to achieve its war goals.

The official repeated Israel‘s longstanding stance that Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza must be annihilated, and all hostages freed with Gaza posing no threat to Israel in the future.

The war began when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages.

Israel responded with a military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and destroying the Palestinian terrorist group.

The US is Israel‘s closest ally and biggest arms supplier but, along with much of the world, has become sharply critical of the growing civilian death toll in the Palestinian enclave during the Israeli offensive.

In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinians reacted warily to the Security Council vote, fearing it could prove yet another ceasefire initiative that goes nowhere.

POST-WAR PLANNING ‘IMPERATIVE,’ BLINKEN SAYS

Blinken said his talks were also addressing day-after plans for Gaza, including security, governance, and reconstruction of the enclave. “We’ve been doing that in consultation with many partners throughout the region. Those conversations will continue … it’s imperative that we have these plans,” he said.

As part of his eighth trouble-shooting trip to the Middle East since the Gaza conflict ignited, Blinken also sought steps to prevent months of border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group from escalating into a spillover war.

On Monday, Blinken had talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, a key mediator in the war, before proceeding to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Blinken’s consultations in Israel on Tuesday included centrist former military chief Benny Gantz — who resigned from Israel‘s war cabinet on Sunday over what he said was Netanyahu’s failure to outline a plan for ending the conflict.

Blinken, speaking later in the day at a conference in Jordan on the humanitarian response for Gaza, announced $404 million in aid for Palestinians and called on other donors to also step up.

Fighting continued with little respite on Tuesday as Israeli forces stepped up strikes on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, skirting the border with Egypt, a day after four soldiers were killed by a blast in a booby-trapped house claimed by Hamas.

Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires were close over the past several months, but there has been only one, week-long truce, in November, when over 100 hostages were freed in exchange for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in a commando raid into a crowded urban refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday. The Hamas-controlled health ministry claimed that 274 Palestinians were killed during the operation, although experts have questioned the reliability of casualty figures from Gaza. Israel said the casualties from the raid were “less than 100.”

There are over 100 hostages left in the coastal enclave, according to Israeli tallies, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead in absentia.