US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad yesterday to discuss a “proposal to achieve a complete and absolute ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip that would be accompanied by the release of hostages in the hands of Hamas, the State Department said. .

“The (American) Secretary of State praised Israel’s willingness to conclude an agreement and emphasized that now it is Hamas who has the duty to accept it,” says a press release issued by Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Blinken also held a telephone conversation with Israel’s wartime government minister without portfolio, centrist politician and former Israeli chief of staff Benny Gantz, to whom he stressed that the proposal served Israel’s longer-term (national) security interests. ,” according to a separate press release issued by Mr. Miller.