Secretary of State Antony Blinken touched down in Israel on Sunday night, amid an international push to secure a hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists deal between Jerusalem and the Hamas group in Gaza.
The American diplomat was set to hold discussions with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and his counterpart Israel Katz.
Netanyahu will meet Blinken at 11 a.m. on Monday.
Blinken’s visit to the Jewish state—his ninth since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 people—comes amid ongoing talks to secure the release of 115 captives still held in Gaza.
The visit is part of Washington’s “diplomatic efforts to conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and release of hostages and detainees through the bridging proposal presented today by the United States, with support from Egypt and Qatar,” the State Department announced on Friday.
President Joe Biden said he dispatched Blinken to the region in an attempt “to reaffirm my iron-clad support for Israel’s security, continue our intensive efforts to conclude this agreement and to underscore that with the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process.”
Biden said he reviewed “the significant progress made in Doha over the past two days of talks” under the auspices of Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
