
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Israel that it must account for the safety of Palestinian civilians before resuming any military operations in Gaza, where a week-long truce has allowed the exchange of captives held by Hamas for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
As negotiators from Qatar and Egypt were in difficult talks on Thursday for a new two-day extension to the pause in fighting between Hamas and Israel, the United States’s top diplomat made his third trip to the region since the Israel-Palestinian war began on October 7.