US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Monday in Riyadh at the start of a new crisis tour aimed at pushing an elusive Israel-Hamas ceasefire and increasing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Follow our live blog for the latest developments on the war in Gaza.
Issued on:
2 min
Summary:
- A senior Hamas official has said the Palestinian militant group will deliver its response to Israel’s latest counterproposal for a Gaza ceasefire at talks in Egypt on Monday.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and Jordan on a trip through Wednesday, the State Department announced, after the US and Israeli leaders discussed hostage-release talks by telephone.
- US President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated his “clear position” on Israeli plans to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the White House said.
- At least 34,454 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 77,575 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
06:00am: Blinken arrives in Saudi Arabia on new Mideast crisis tour
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Monday in Riyadh at the start of a new crisis tour aimed at pushing an elusive Israel-Hamas ceasefire and increasing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Blinken, who will later visit Jordan and Israel, will meet in the Saudi capital with visiting Gulf Arab and European foreign ministers on “day-after” plans for reconstruction of post-war Gaza, a State Department official said.
05:00am: US senator questions whether State Department properly assessing Israel conduct
A Democratic senator on Sunday questioned whether the Biden administration was properly assessing whether Israel was complying with international law, following a Reuters report that some senior US officials did not find that country’s assurances credible.
“This reporting casts serious doubt on the integrity of the process in the Biden administration for reviewing whether the Netanyahu government is complying with international law in Gaza,” Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.
- Some senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to a leaked internal State Department memo.
- French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné arrived in Lebanon on Sunday as part of diplomatic attempts to broker a de-escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Iran-allied group Hezbollah.
- Two senior Israeli ministers have publicly opposed a Gaza truce deal, saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has no right to exist if it failed to invade Rafah.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters, AP)
