{"id":47439,"date":"2024-02-08T15:52:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T05:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abnews.com.au\/?p=47439"},"modified":"2024-02-08T15:52:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T05:52:21","slug":"blinken-says-still-space-for-agreement-on-gaza-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/?p=47439","title":{"rendered":"Blinken says still &#8216;space for agreement&#8217; on Gaza hostages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday an agreement to return hostages from Gaza remained possible and called for protecting civilians as Israel prepares military action in packed Rafah.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Blinken&#8217;s call for moderation put a brave face on remarks shortly beforehand by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected Hamas calls for a ceasefire as part of the Qatari-brokered hostage deal and vowed military action in Rafah.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While there are some clear non-starters in Hamas&#8217;s response, we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached, and we will work at that relentlessly until we get there,&#8221; Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv hours after meeting Netanyahu.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about Netanyahu&#8217;s rejection, Blinken said he is &#8220;not going to speak for Israel&#8221; but that the Hamas counter-proposal at least offered an opportunity &#8220;to pursue negotiations&#8221; on hostages.<\/p>\n<p>Blinken said he would meet Thursday with families of hostages and was committed to seeking the release of all of them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The sheer agony not knowing the fate of your loved one, it&#8217;s almost unimaginable,&#8221; Blinken said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday an agreement to return hostages from Gaza remained possible and called for protecting civilians as Israel prepares military action in packed Rafah. Blinken&#8217;s call for moderation put a brave face on remarks shortly beforehand by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected Hamas calls for a ceasefire [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[414],"class_list":["post-47439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","tag-blinken-says-still-space-for-agreement-on-gaza-hostages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aglowmedia.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}