'Now it's on Hamas': Blinken pushes for truce deal as Israel warns of Rafah offensive

The US urged both Hamas to accept a truce.Top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Hamas to accept a truce in Gaza, as Israel i Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to launch a military offensive on Rafah"with or without" a deal.

Netanyahu's comments came as Hamas was weighing the latest plan for a truce proposed in Cairo talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.The Palestinian militant group said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.

Washington has heightened pressure on all sides to reach a ceasefire - a message pushed by Blinken, who was on his seventh regional tour since the war broke out. Blinken saw off a first Jordanian truck convoy of aid heading to Gaza through the Erez crossing reopened by Israel.A US-built floating pier on Gaza's coast is expected to be completed later this week, said Cyprus, the departure point for the planned"maritime corridor".

At the height of the crisis, Abu Rabih said he saw many Gazans"scouring the roads, streets and fields for any sort of grass they could find to eat". Washington has strongly backed its ally Israel but also pressured it to refrain from a ground invasion of the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said an Israeli assault on Rafah would"be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee".

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