As the United States pushes for a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza, Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken plans to visit Israel and three Arab countries next week.
Mr. Blinken is scheduled to travel to Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan from Monday to Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement Friday. The visit, his eighth visit to the region, comes at a particularly tense moment since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks.
The Biden administration has been trying hard to end the fighting in Gaza in hopes of freeing Israelis — and some Israeli-Americans — held hostage by Hamas. President Biden to limit US arms supply to Israel.
Relations between the Biden administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been particularly strained since Mr. A full-scale invasion of the Gazan city of Rafah” by Mr. Biden has said he opposes it.
Mr. Blinken’s travels have also arrived. The firefight has displaced people from both sides of the border.
Mr. Miller’s report said.
Both Qatar and Egypt play a mediating role between Hamas and Israel, and do not negotiate directly.
Israel recently strained relations with Egypt by seizing “strategic control” of a buffer zone along the Egypt-Gaza border known as the Philadelphia Corridor.
In Jordan, Mr. Blinken is expected to attend.
