According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the current Gaza cease-fire agreement may be the last chance to secure the return of hostages and put an end to the conflict between Hamas and Israel. “This is a decisive moment — probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken told CNN on Monday. Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday and was expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later that day.

This is his eighth trip to the region since the conflict began on October 7. Negotiators from the United States, Egypt, and Qatar met in Doha, Qatar, last week to work out the latest version of the agreement, and talks are set to restart in Cairo later this week. Violence continues. Shortly after Blinken landed in Israel on Sunday, a device exploded outside a synagogue in Tel Aviv, killing the person carrying it and injuring a passerby, according to Israeli authorities. On Monday, officials labeled the bombing as a terrorist strike. Also on Monday, Israel maintained its advances north of Khan Younis and increased its shelling of Gaza City districts overnight, according to Reuters.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that an Israeli strike killed two persons in south Lebanon, while Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and raids in numerous places. Hezbollah reported a “simultaneous air attack” with “explosive-laden drones” on two Israeli military positions: a barracks near the border and a base near the coastal town of Acre.

Last month, an Israeli strike near Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, one of Hezbollah’s top commanders, just before an attack in Tehran assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Although Israel did not take credit for Haniyeh’s killing, it was accused for the attack. Both Iran and Hezbollah, which is sponsored by Iran, promised vengeance for the killings. A cease-fire agreement is considered as a means of avoiding a broader conflict in the region. In his remarks Monday, Blinken stated that he was in Israel as part of “an intensive diplomatic effort on President Biden’s instructions to try to get this agreement to the line, and eventually over the line.”

He stated that Israel and Hamas should reach an agreement on a truce. “It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process,” he told reporters. “So we’re looking to make sure that there is no escalation, that there are no provocations, that there are no actions that in any way could move us away from getting this deal over the line, or for that matter, escalating the conflict to other places and to greater intensity.” Negotiators have been attempting to strike an agreement for months. The core structure of a cease-fire agreement stays the same. It is a three-phase plan in which warfare would be halted for six weeks, and Hamas would begin to free the anticipated 110

The core structure of a cease-fire agreement stays the same. It is a three-phase procedure in which hostilities would be suspended for six weeks while Hamas began to release the estimated 110 captives it is still holding, including approximately 70 who are still alive, and Israel would liberate hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned. The mediators hope to bring an end to the war that began on October 7 with a Hamas offensive on Israel, which killed over 1,200 people and resulted in the seizure of nearly 250 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed around 40,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities. The Israeli military claims to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters.