
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday not to launch an assault on Rafah, in the last leg of his whistle-stop regional tour to push for a cease-fire in Gaza.
This latest stop was Blinken's sixth time in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that it said killed some 1,200 people and triggered the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip. The death toll from that campaign has exceeded 32,000 people, the Gaza healthy ministry said Friday.