Blinken says surprise escalations threaten to derail talks for a cease-fire in Gaza

CAIRO -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed frustration Wednesday at surprise escalations that threaten to derail efforts to broker a cease-fire deal in Gaza, noting that the United States is assessing a deadly attack that caused pagers used by Hezbollah to explode in Lebanon.

Blinken spoke to reporters in Cairo, where he traveled for talks on the cease-fire negotiations and U.S.-Egyptian relations. While Israel has not publicly spoken on responsibility in the pager attack, a U.S. official has said Israel briefed the United States after the explosions.

The United States, Egypt and other international partners are working for an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt nearly a year of war in Gaza and release hostages held by the militant group. The U.S. says such a deal is the best chance at tamping down wider regional tensions, with Israeli leaders threatening to step up military action against Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and the pager attack risking further escalation.

“Time and again” when the U.S. and other mediators believe they are making progress on a cease-fire deal in Gaza, “we've seen an event that ... threatens to slow it, stop it, derail it,” Blinken said in response to a question about the previous day's explosions in Lebanon.

Personal pagers used by Hezbollah in Lebanon exploded nearly simultaneously Tuesday, killing at least 12 people, including two children.

Blinken reiterated that the U.S. was still gathering information on the circumstances of the pager attack and declined to make more specific comments.

In other unexpected events that have put a cease-fire deal at risk, Blinken spoke of the discovery this month of the bodies of six hostages who Israel said had been recently killed by Hamas. They were among those still held in Gaza following Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that launched the war.

When news came of their deaths, negotiators had been making progress on the timing and other details of a swap that would have freed hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention, America's top diplomat said.

Blinken, who had meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, said the most dire need in the troubled cease-fire negotiations was for both sides to show they actually wanted a deal.

“The most important thing in this moment is to see a demonstration of political will,” Blinken said.

He headed to his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began without the optimistic projections that the Biden administration has previously conveyed of a breakthrough in the negotiations. The U.S., Egypt and other allies say a deal is essential to quelling escalated attacks by Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

Israeli leaders warned this week of a possible military offensive in Lebanon to stop what have become daily exchanges of rockets and missiles between Hezbollah and Israel across the southern Lebanese border.

Abdelatty, the Egyptian foreign minister, said Wednesday the region was on the brink of wider war and spoke critically of Tuesday's targeted explosions in Lebanon.

“Any escalation, including what happened yesterday, certainly hinders reaching a cease-fire deal and the release of hostages and detainees," he said. “Certainly what happened doesn’t only hinder the current talks, but also risks getting into a full-scale war.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of slow-rolling the talks for a cease-fire in Gaza because a deal could mean the collapse of his hardline coalition government, with some members opposed to any deal with the Palestinians.