Blinken arrives in Egypt on regional crisis tour pushing Gaza truce deal
Al Jazeera
Top US diplomat begins yet another Middle East tour seeking to push through truce deal amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Egypt on his fifth regional tour since October last year, aimed at paving the way for an agreement between Israel and Hamas as the war in Gaza rages on.
Blinken was set on Tuesday to meet Egyptian mediators, who, together with other Arab counterparts, have tried to put together a deal to end the vicious war, which has killed more than 27,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Most of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million population is displaced, facing severe shortages of food, water, medicine, and shelter, with the majority of Gaza now in ruins following nearly four months of Israeli bombardment.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have been working on a deal that would halt the war and enable the exchange of Israeli captives held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. However, it is reported that Israel and Hamas remain far apart in agreeing to the conditions.
US officials said Blinken hopes in Cairo – and then in Doha – to get an update on Hamas’s response to the proposed deal. He will then travel to Israel to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
