Blinken to travel to Middle East to press for Gaza ceasefire

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East next week, the U.S. State Department said on Friday, as Washington tries to put pressure on Israel and Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal that President Joe Biden laid out last week.
In his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the latest flare-up in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the top U.S. diplomat will visit Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar and meet with their senior leaders.
Blinken’s visit comes after Biden laid out a fresh ceasefire plan to end the eight month-long war and at a time when tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah has escalated in recent days, with both sides signaling a readiness for a bigger confrontation.
“The Secretary will discuss how the ceasefire proposal would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians,” the State Department said in a statement. “He will underscore that it would alleviate suffering in Gaza, enable a massive surge in humanitarian assistance and allow Palestinians to return to their neighborhoods.”
Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and others to arrange a ceasefire between Israel and the militant Hamas movement in the Gaza war have repeatedly stalled, with each side blaming the other for the lack of progress.