US Secretary of State Blinken arrives in Israel to advance Gaza cease-fire talks

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Monday evening in Israel for talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip.

The top diplomat held talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo early Monday on the first leg of his eighth regional tour since last Oct. 7. He is also scheduled to visit Qatar.

Blinken is set to meet later today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

He will also hold talks on Tuesday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, opposition leader Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, who resigned from the Israeli emergency government on Sunday.

Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,100 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 84,700 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.