By Daphne Psaledakis
CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Egypt and Israel on Monday at a critical time as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure that the war does not expand into Lebanon.
On his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, triggering the bloodiest episode in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the top US diplomat is also expected to travel to Jordan and Qatar this week.
Blinken is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo before traveling to Israel on Monday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a Department schedule. of State.
The visit comes after US President Joe Biden on May 31 outlined Israel’s proposed three-phase ceasefire that calls for a permanent end to hostilities, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and reconstruction. of Gaza.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage, according to Israeli records. In response, Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, the Hamas-controlled territory’s Health Ministry said in its Sunday update, and reduced the enclave to a wasteland.
Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October in an attack in Gaza on Saturday during which 274 Palestinians were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Blinken’s trip comes after Israeli Minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government on Sunday, stripping sole centrist power from the leader’s far-right coalition during the war in Gaza.
The departure of Gantz’s centrist party will not pose an immediate threat to the government. But it could have a serious impact nonetheless, leaving Netanyahu dependent on hardliners, with no end in sight to the war and a possible escalation in fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah.
Blinken has met with Gantz on visits to Israel.
The conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah is dangerously poised after more than eight months of fighting sparked by the Gaza war, with hostilities escalating and both sides signaling readiness for greater confrontation.
Blinken, during this week’s trip, will discuss with partners the need to reach a ceasefire agreement that guarantees the release of all hostages, as well as the need to prevent the conflict from escalating further, the spokesperson said. State Department voice Matthew Miller said in a statement Friday.
He will emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal presented, Miller added.
Ceasefire negotiations have intensified since Biden’s speech and CIA Director William Burns met with senior officials from mediators Qatar and Egypt on Wednesday in Doha to discuss the plan.
Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires were close in recent months, but there was only one, one-week truce in November.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Cairo and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Lincoln Feast.)
