The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is to arrive in Israel as part of Washington’s intensifying diplomatic push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that will end the 10-month-old war even as a top Hamas official dismissed optimism about a deal as “an illusion”.
The top US diplomat’s ninth trip to the region since the war began in October last year comes days after the US put forward bridging proposals that it and mediators Qatar and Egypt believe would close gaps between the warring parties.
