U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hiked up pressure on Hamas on Wednesday to accept the latest proposal for a cease-fire with Israel, saying the “time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and pause the nearly seven months of war in Gaza.

But a key sticking point appeared to remain — whether the deal would completely end Israel’s offensive as Hamas has demanded.

Blinken met with Israeli leaders throughout the day on the last stop of his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October, trying to push through what has been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas. The U.S. and fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar hope to avert an Israeli offensive into the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.

Throughout months of talks, Hamas has said the freeing of all the hostages it holds must bring a permanent halt to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

The proposed deal now at the center of talks raises that possibility, according to leaked details that were confirmed by an Egyptian official and a Hamas official. But Hamas is seeking to strengthen the language to ensure a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip, the Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal negotiations. The group said it is likely to give its response to the proposal on Thursday.

In public, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has staunchly rejected stopping the war before Hamas is destroyed. In a sign of the challenges in the negotiations, Netanyahu in his talks with Blinken on Wednesday repeated his vow to launch the offensive on Rafah, which he says is Hamas’ last stronghold in Gaza.

Blinken said Israel has made “very important” compromises in cease-fire efforts and it is now up to Hamas to get the deal done.

“There’s no time for further haggling. The deal is there,” Blinken said, shortly before he was to leave Israel.

Earlier in the day, he said in talks with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv that Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal. “No delays, no excuses. The time is now,” he said.

Blinken said the deal would also allow much needed food, medicine and water to get into Gaza.

Blinken said there has been “meaningful progress” in efforts to increase the flow of aid. On Wednesday, Israel reopened its Erez crossing for deliveries into northern Gaza for the first time since it was damaged in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Hanging over the cease-fire negotiations is the possibility of an Israeli attack on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population has fled, cramming into vast tent camps and other shelters. On Tuesday, Netanyahu vowed to go ahead with the assault with or without a cease-fire deal.

“The operation in Rafah doesn’t depend on anything. The prime minister made this clear to Secretary Blinken,” Netanyahu’s office said after the two met Wednesday. Hard-line members of Netanyahu’s coalition, on whom he depends to keep his government in power, have railed against any deal that prevents a Rafah attack as a victory for Hamas.

The United States has staunchly supported Israel’s campaign of bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza since Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 into southern Israel. But the U.S. has grown increasingly critical of the staggering toll borne by Palestinian civilians and has been outspoken against a move on Rafah. American officials say they oppose a major offensive but that if Israel conducts one, it must first evacuate civilians.

Throughout his regional visit, with previous stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Blinken urged Hamas to accept the cease-fire proposal, calling it “extraordinarily generous” on Israel’s part.

The proposal lays out three stages of six to seven weeks each, according to details first reported in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.

The first phase would bring a pause during which Hamas would release women and elderly civilians in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. In a series of timed steps, Israeli troops would withdraw from a coastal road in Gaza, then from central Gaza and displaced people would return north.

In the meantime, talks would start on restoring “a permanent calm,” the Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal negotiations.

The next stage would bring implementation of the calm, including Hamas’ release of all remaining hostages — soldiers and civilians — and a withdrawal of Israeli forces out of Gaza. The Egyptian official said Hamas sees the language about the withdrawal as too vague and wants to specify a complete withdrawal to avoid different interpretations.

The last stage would see the release of bodies of dead hostages and the start of a five-year reconstruction plan. The plan says that Hamas would agree not to rebuild its military arsenal.

(AP)