Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming to you live from

London I'm Paul Henley. The American Secretary of State Anthony Blin, says the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

has been positive about a US plan for a Gaza ceasefire deal,

and that it's now down to Hamas to agree it.

Mr. Blinkin was speaking in Tel Aviv after a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Netanyahu

lasting nearly three hours.

Just last week, the president put forward a proposal with Qatar and with Egypt to try to bridge

the gaps that remain between the parties so that we could get agreement to what the President

put out there a couple of months ago.

In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today,

he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal,

that he supports it. It's now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.

But there isn't much obvious cause for optimism. Hamas didn't attend two days of talks in Qatar

last week after accusing Israel of adding new conditions

to earlier proposals and in Gaza itself today health officials say that at least 21 people

have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Mr. Blinkin has said that the negotiations happening now might be the last chance to secure

the release of Israeli hostages and agree a cease fire between Israel and Hamas.

So what are the chances of Hamas agreeing to these bridging proposals?

Our correspondent traveling with Mr Blinken is Tom Bateman.

That's the most important question of all now because I

think what we're seeing is the Americans use a tactic that frankly they've used once already in this negotiation which is to

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