Blinken arrives in Egypt to support Israel-Hamas ceasefire

Top US diplomat’s visit to Cairo comes after holding separate meetings with Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Egypt on the second day of a regional tour to bolster a ceasefire reached last week between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian faction that runs the besieged Gaza Strip. Eleven days of Israeli bombardment that began on May 10 killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded nearly 2,000 others in the coastal enclave. At least 12 people in Israel, including two children, were killed by rockets fired by Hamas and other armed groups from Gaza during the same period. Blinken’s visit to Cairo on Wednesday came a day after he held separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. The top US diplomat pledged millions in aid to rebuilding efforts in Gaza that he said the US would “ensure” would not benefit Hamas, with whom Washington does not have direct contact and labels a “terrorist organisation”.