US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Monday for talks in what he called a “decisive moment” in the War between Israel and HamasThe top US diplomat said This is “perhaps the last opportunity” to achieve a long-awaited ceasefire and the release of the hostages and to end the war in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.

“I’m here as part of an intense diplomatic effort at the direction of President Biden to try to get this deal through and ultimately get it done. It’s time to get it done,” Blinken said before his meeting with Herzog. “This is a pivotal moment – probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to bring the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to lasting peace and security.”

“It is also time to ensure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process. That is why we are working to ensure that there is no escalation and no provocations,” he added.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the prime minister spent about three hours with Blinken during a “positive” meeting. Netanyahu “reiterated Israel’s commitment to the recent American proposal to release our abductees – which takes into account Israel’s security needs, to which it firmly stands.”

Blinken’s arrival on Sunday was his ninth visit to the country since Israel launched its war against Hamas in response to Hamas’s bloody incursion into southern Israel in which the militants killed nearly 1,200 people and took another hostage to Gaza.

Israeli officials estimate that about 80 of the prisoners are still alive, while the remains of 30 to 40 others have yet to be returned to Israel.

Hamas and Israel continue to accuse each other

In a statement released on Sunday, Hamas accused the Israeli president of “putting up more conditions and obstacles to an agreement in a way that serves his strategy of buying time and prolonging the aggression in Gaza.” The group said Netanyahu had recently “put forward new conditions and demands with the aim of undermining the efforts of the mediators.”

Hamas said its latest ceasefire terms “correspond to and are consistent with Netanyahu’s terms.” It suggested the proposal contained more of what Netanyahu said he wanted, including abandoning demands for a permanent ceasefire, an Israeli army withdrawal from Gaza and Israel relinquishing control of Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday that his government was still in negotiations, but stressed that it would not be a “scenario where we just keep giving.”

“There are things we can be flexible on and there are things we cannot be flexible on – and we will insist on that. We know very well how to distinguish between the two,” Netanyahu said.

A blow after Biden said we were ‘closer than ever’ to a ceasefire

Hamas’ latest statement will be a blow to months of US-brokered ceasefire talks. The White House and other mediators from Egypt and Qatar had expressed optimism about the course of the talks last week.

In a joint statement on Friday, the United States, Qatar and Egypt said the talks had been “serious and constructive.”

“We are closer to an agreement than ever before,” President Biden told reporters at the White House the same day.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield outlined the bridging peace proposal, which the US and its partners urged both parties to accept.

The agreement would ultimately include the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza, a vaccination campaign to curb the spread of polio in the besieged Palestinian territory, the restoration of services such as water and electricity to displaced civilians in the enclave, and efforts to end fighting between Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israeli forces, Thomas-Greenfield said.

On Friday, Gaza Health Ministry officials also said the first known case of polio in the war zone had been confirmed in a child.

Diplomacy to avert a major war in the Middle East

Blinken’s visit comes at a sensitive time as the Biden administration works to prevent the ongoing exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah from escalating into a much larger regional conflict.

Soon after the war began, Hezbollah launched attacks on northern Israel and expressed its support for Hamas and the Palestinian people. Both groups are supported by Iran, and bothEhran and Hezbollah have sworn revenge for Israel’s assassination of Hamas politician Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this month and the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut in July.

Neither Iran nor Hezbollah have indicated how or when they will retaliate.

A senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Blinken on Sunday that the Biden administration believes Iranian officials are seeking a ceasefire.

“They don’t want a regional escalation,” the senior government official said.

Asked whether Iran had agreed to delay its response to the attacks in order to advance ceasefire talks, a source at the Iranian embassy in London told CBS News on Friday that the country had “always said that it welcomed peace and stability in the region and also that the killing of innocent people in Gaza must stop.”

Endless misery in the Gaza Strip

The humanitarian situation in Gaza The situation for the country’s population of around 2 million deteriorated further over the weekend as Israeli strikes destroyed more buildings across the area and the military said it was targeting militants and infrastructure.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said the death toll in Gaza had risen to over 40,000 since October 7. Although the agency makes no distinction between casualties among fighters and civilians, the UN and humanitarian organizations say many of those killed were women and children.

Among the latest devastation was an Israeli attack on Sunday on a house in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah that killed a woman and her six children, according to an Associated Press reporter who counted the bodies.

CBS News’ Margaret Brennan and Camilla Schick contributed to this report.