Live updates | Blinken seeks more aid for Gaza as hostage talks restart in Egypt

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday to seek governance reforms, part of a plan to rally the region behind a postwar vision for Gaza that includes concrete steps toward a Palestinian state

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday to seek governance reforms, part of a plan to rally the region behind a postwar vision for Gaza that includes concrete steps toward a Palestinian state. Blinken said he had secured commitments from multiple countries in the region to assist with rebuilding and governing Gaza after the war against Hamas, but only if there is “a pathway to a Palestinian state.”

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent days as the Israeli offensive’s focus shifts to the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in the central Gaza. The entire population of 2.3 million people is also in a food crisis, with 576,000 people at catastrophic or starvation levels.

Hamas' Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel triggered the war and killed around 1,200 people, and militants took some 250 others hostage. Israel’s air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 23,000 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Currently:

— Video appears to show the Israeli army shot 3 Palestinians, killing 1, without provocation.