U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday.
Evelyn Hockstein/AP
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Evelyn Hockstein/AP
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday.
Evelyn Hockstein/AP
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet Friday morning as part of the intensive U.S. diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza.
This latest stop is Blinken’s sixth time in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the more than four-month-long Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
It comes as Netanyahu mulls further military operations in Rafah and cease-fire and hostage release talks between Israeli and Hamas authorities continue in Doha, Qatar.
The visit coincides with a United Nations Security Council vote Friday morning that resulted in a failed new resolution on the Israel-Hamas war.
The U.S. proposed language calling for an immediate and sustained cease-fire tied to a hostage release — the first time the U.S. proposed such language. Russia and China exercised their veto power to reject the resolution that came to a vote of 11 in favor, three against and one abstention.
The U.S. has vetoed previous resolutions on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire.
Before stopping in Israel, Blinken made appearances elsewhere in the Middle East including in Egypt where he met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for talks on a potential cease-fire in Gaza.
Of those talks, Blinken said, “There’s still difficult work to get there, but I continue to believe it’s possible.”
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