Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas "logically" could happen in a Thursday interview with Bloomberg.
"I say that with all of the caution that comes with that statement because we've been very close before," he told The Big Take on Thursday.
"But what's changed is this: Hamas knows that the cavalry is not coming to the rescue," Blinken continued. "For months and months, It hoped it would get a wider war with Hezbollah, with Iran, with Iranian-aligned groups, coming in and creating more problems from Israel on more fronts and helping Hamas endure."
"We now know that that is not happening, they know it's not happening, because of the very important work that was done with us and with others dealing with the unprecedented Iranian attacks on Israel, dealing with Hezbollah, so I think that's concentrated minds among Hamas on the need to complete this deal," the secretary of state added.
Blinken noted the difficulty in high-level negotiations and said that the deal "can still move in the other direction" but noted the efforts the US had taken to achieve these matters.
Will they say yes?
"The fundamental question right now is 'Is Hamas finally prepared to say yes?'" Blinken told The Big Take. "If it does, we get the hostages back. We get a ceasefire. We get an immediate, dramatic improvement in the lives of Palestinian children, women, and men who've been caught in this horrible crossfire since October 7 of Hamas's making.
"If they really purport to care about the Palestinian people, they will say yes and do it now."
When asked about his regrets regarding humanitarian aid to Gaza, the chief diplomat said that the US had attempted to do several things daily since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war.
"First, to stand resolute with Israel to try to make sure that October 7 would never happen again," he noted. "Second, to prevent this war from going wider, because if that happened, if other fronts opened up – whether it was with Iran, whether it was with Hezbollah, these other groups – more death, more destruction, and it would probably prolong what was going on in Gaza. Three, to do whatever we could to make sure that people in Gaza were getting the assistance they need, were getting the protections they need.
Blinken noted a "noticeable improvement" in aid, "but we’ve seen that before, and then we’ve seen it fall off."
He noted the "unique" environment of Gaza because they are "trapped" there and said that Israel still had a responsibility to assist and protect those who need it.
"In most other conflicts, people – they can become refugees," Blinken noted. "That’s not a good thing, but it’s better than being caught in the middle of a hot war. And also, you have an enemy in the case of Hamas that’s fully enmeshed with the civilian population, living in and under buildings – apartment buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals."
"The best way to finally deal with the needs of the people would be to end the conflict, would be to get the ceasefire, to get the hostages home," he said. " We’ve been working very hard to make sure that as best we can, we actually start to implement plans for a better future for the region, or if we don’t have time to fully do that, to be able to hand them off – not just getting the hostage and ceasefire deal, but having a clear plan for what follows,a day-after plan for Gaza so that there’s no vacuum that Hamas can refill."
Blinken claimed that the Biden administration had done immense work to continue the Abraham Accords and wanted to see normalization between Isarel and Saudi Arabia next. The work is reportedly "ready to be handed over to the new administration, and hopefully, they’ll carry the ball forward."