Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Israel-Hamas truce

The US secretary of state hails progress towards cementing the ceasefire and rebuilding Gaza after the 11-day conflict.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up a two-day visit to the Middle East, winning diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab countries as he moved to shore up the ceasefire that ended an 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group which rules the Gaza Strip. But the mission made little headway in resolving the deeper issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the tensions in occupied East Jerusalem that played a key role in triggering the latest violence. After two days of talks with Egyptian, Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian officials, Blinken acknowledged that any resumption of peace talks remained far off.