TEL AVIV (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday for meetings with Israeli leaders, the first stop of a wider Middle East tour to launch another push for an elusive ceasefire.
The top U.S. diplomat’s latest trip – his 11th to the region since Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the Gaza war – comes as the Israeli military has intensified its campaign in the Palestinian enclave as well as in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other officials during the day as part of a week-long Middle East visit that also includes Jordan and Qatar.
Diplomatic efforts have thus far failed to bring an end to the year-long Gaza war and its spillover conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which has dramatically intensified in recent weeks after a year of exchanging fire mostly across Lebanon’s southern border.
Hezbollah early on Tuesday morning said it had launched volleys of rockets at two Israeli military bases near Tel Aviv and a naval base west of Haifa.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Tel Aviv, writing by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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